Environmental Awareness In Society Research Articles

Comprehensive integration of the interaction of ecology, science and education in the context of the scientific and technological revolution and the formation of a sustainable society

Taking into account the modern ecological problems accumulated by mankind since the times of antiquity, the article draws attention to the peculiarities of the worldview, and its change, and defines the peculiarities of the philosophy of ecology in the society of sustainable development. In the process of research, the essence and significance of the philosophy of ecology as a direction of philosophical research that forms the basis of worldview orientations was clarified, and by resorting to praxeology, it was possible to reveal the potential opportunities of education in the ecological thinking of the future self. The features of the socio-anthropological awareness of the need for the concept of sustainable development are considered and the philosophy of ecology is in the process of environmentalization of public consciousness. For a better understanding of the need for environmental awareness in society, an important role was played by international concepts and regulatory legal acts, which are the basis of the research and writing of the article itself. They became one of the reasons for the rethinking of the self-based on the ecological tasks in the society of sustainable development. In this context, special attention is paid to education, a social institution, one of the main tasks of which is the formation of the future self by instilling value orientations and the awareness that a person is a part of nature, which at the same time is his home. However, any changes cannot occur without a change in the consciousness of the Self, and in this case, the leading role is given to the philosophy of ecology as a part of philosophical knowledge whose task is to form an ecological worldview.

Exploring the impact of public funds and eco-friendly innovations on reducing carbon pollution in North Africa.

The main objective of this study is to examine the impacts of green energy and public investment on the CO2 emissions in North Africa. Moreover, the study also tests the existence of the N-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for North African countries between 1995 and 2018. These factors were analyzed using the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), and Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimators to obtain estimations of heterogeneous parameters. The outcome of these tests and examinations showed that the N-shaped curve was confirmed. Secondly, The results of the study also demonstrate the effectiveness of renewable energy as an eco-friendly innovation in reducing carbon emissions. This finding highlights the positive impact that renewable energy sources can have in terms of emitting fewer carbon emissions compared to traditional energy sources. Moreover, public investment, which interprets government expenditure, and urbanization contribute to environmental degradation by increasing CO2 emissions in the case of North African countries. Furthermore, the findings also indicated a trade-off effect resulting from the correlation between CO2 emissions and economic development. Based on these findings, the study recommends that economic policymakers in North African countries prioritize transforming the structure of government expenditures to improve environmental quality, optimize the utilization of revenues from non-environmentally friendly energy resources to accelerate the energy transition, increase the exploitation of renewable energy, and promote environmental awareness in society. By implementing these recommendations, North African countries can balance economic growth and environmental quality while reducing their carbon footprint.

Environmental management control systems: Exploring the economic motivation behind their implementation

Environmental management control systems (EMCSs) effectively integrate environmental objectives into corporate decision-making, yet implementation costs may discourage their adoption. To understand firms’ economic motivation for implementing EMCSs, we theorize that internal and external factors drive both their economic performance and the decision to implement EMCSs. We argue that the environmental costs induced by firms’ pollution intensity drive the economic benefits of EMCSs as well as their implementation. Additionally, we suggest that this relationship depends on society’s environmental awareness. By introducing an archival measure of EMCS implementation, we test these hypotheses on a longitudinal dataset of European and US firms. Our results support the argument that environmental costs drive EMCSs’ economic benefits and implementation. We also find that environmental awareness in societies influences the impact of environmental costs. Our study highlights the importance of environmental awareness in society for aligning environmental and economic goals and thus to increase corporate environmentalism.

Evaluation of Environmental Management and Conservation of Natural Resources in Tourism Enterprises in Ayacucho, Peru: Workers’ Perceptions

Nowadays, it is important to promote environmental management in organisations so that natural resources are subject to a conservation process that allows them to be maintained over time. In addition, this is a good way to increase the environmental awareness of the different actors in society. Therefore, the objective of this study is to evaluate the perceptions of workers concerning the relationship between environmental management and the conservation of natural resources in tourism companies in Ayacucho, located in the Andean region of Peru. The research is of a basic type, with a quantitative approach and a non-experimental, correlational-exploratory design. The survey technique was used and the data-collection instrument was a questionnaire addressed to 600 workers on environmental management, with the dimensions of planning, implementation and operation and verification; and on conservation of natural resources, with the dimensions of biodiversity monitoring and consolidation of the protected area. The results show that 39% of workers disagree with the planning of their company, 47% neither agree nor disagree with the operations of their company and the implementation of its projects and 47% disagree with their company’s methods of assessing the success of its operations. These results show that an environmental management model should be proposed to improve the conservation of natural resources and to contribute to the revaluation of resources and the promotion of biodiversity protection in order to create environmental awareness in society.

The Effect of a Training Program Based on Multiple Intelligences on Developing Environmental Awareness and Achievement Motivation among Primary School Students

This study aimed to measure the effect of a training program based on multiple intelligences in developing environmental awareness and achievement motivation among primary school students in Jordan. The study reached the most important result that the children have gained positive attitudes towards the environment by sensing environmental problems better, which increased their motivation to contribute to solving these problems and developing environmental conditions in a better way; trends can only be generated through the information that individuals obtain from various sources. Therefore, the program was best directed toward developing environmental awareness in Children. Thus, the program has created positive trends in children toward increasing positive interaction with their environment. Where the researcher recommended working to include school curricula, starting with the primary stage and ending with the secondary stage, with concepts of environmental awareness to improve positive trends towards the environment and conduct seminars, workshops, and lectures to deepen the concepts of environmental awareness in society to improve its positive trends in researching environmental problems and limiting or eliminating them.
 
 Received: 22 January 2023 / Accepted: 12 April 2023 / Published: 5 May 2023

A system dynamic model to quantify the impacts of water resources allocation on water–energy–food–society (WEFS) nexus

Abstract. Sustainable management of the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus remains an urgent challenge, as interactions between WEF and human sensitivity and reservoir operation in the water system are typically neglected. This study proposes a new approach for modeling the WEF nexus by incorporating human sensitivity and reservoir operation into the system. The co-evolution behaviors of the nexus across water, energy, food, and society (WEFS) were simulated using the system dynamic model. Reservoir operation was simulated to determine the water supply for energy and food systems by the Interactive River–Aquifer Simulation water resources allocation model. Shortage rates for water, energy, and food resulting from the simulations were used to qualify their impacts on the WEFS nexus through environmental awareness in society. Human sensitivity indicated by environmental awareness can then adjust the co-evolution behaviors of the WEFS nexus through feedback loops. The proposed approach was applied to the mid–lower reaches of the Hanjiang River basin in China as a case study. Results indicate that environmental awareness shows the potential to capture human sensitivity to shortages from water, energy, and food systems. Parameters related to boundary conditions and critical values can dominate environmental awareness feedback to regulate socioeconomic expansion to maintain the integrated system from constant resource shortages. The annual average energy shortage rate thereby decreased from 17.16 % to 5.80 % by taking environmental awareness feedback, which contributes to the sustainability of the WEFS nexus. Rational water resources allocation can ensure water supply through reservoir operation. The annual average water shortage rate decreased from 15.89 % to 7.20 % as water resources allocation was considered. Threats from water shortage on the concordant development of the WEFS nexus are significantly alleviated, particularly for the area with a limited regulating capacity for the water project. Therefore, this study contributes to the understanding of interactions across the WEFS systems and helps in improving the efficiency of resource management.

Solid Digestate—Mathematical Modeling of Combustion Process

The combustion of waste biomass is becoming a key challenge for the energy sector, especially in times of growing energy demand and increasing environmental awareness of society. Processing such fuels is usually demanding. Mathematical modeling makes it possible to adapt the course of the process. The best option is to use appropriate fuel mixtures. The aim of this work was to develop a simple model that would allow the pre-selection of the mixture of two types of digestate. Residues from methane fermentation of maize and apple pomace were used in the study. The paper presents both a mathematical model and laboratory tests. The practical part was to check the validity of the model estimates. The model works on the basic data from physicochemical analysis. Laboratory tests included combustion of the samples of different mixtures. We used image analysis of thermograms to determine changes during combustion, which allowed us to determine when and where the main combustion occurs. Results show that a simple mathematical model is able to estimate the course of the combustion of a fuel particle.

A weighted fuzzy approach for green marketing risk assessment: Empirical evidence from dairy industry

The green marketing concept encompasses the consumers' perception and response to the green initiatives and activities that companies implement such as design for environment, green production systems and processes development, and green improvements in packaging. Despite the growing interest in the green marketing domain, few studies have been carried out on the risk assessment of green marketing implementation, especially in the dairy industry. In this study, using a developed integrated fuzzy decision-making methodology, the green marketing risk factors in the dairy industry are assessed. Firstly, the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process is used for weighting the identified risk assessment criteria. Then, a weighted fuzzy inference system is proposed for green marketing risk assessment. Finally, risk mitigation strategies are proposed to deal with the highly ranked risk factors. This research study fills the gaps in the literature by (1) proposing a comprehensive list of green marketing risk factors in the dairy industry, (2) developing a novel weighted fuzzy inference system approach for assessing those risk factors, and (3) providing a final ranking of the dairy industry risk factors together with risk mitigation strategies for the highly ranked risk factors. The level of environmental awareness in society was found as the most important risk factor followed by governmental policies, rules, and regulations for supporting green products risk factors. Finally, some remarks are concluded together with presenting the future works.

POTENTIAL OF AGRICULTURAL COMPLEXES FORMATION FOR GROWING OF ORGANIC PRODUCTS IN UKRAINE

The formation of united territorial communities (UTC) in Ukraine creates favourable conditions for the development of territories. UTC is given more authority to manage resources and revenues and create economically viable facilities. One of such economically promising objects may be agricultural complexes because as of 2017, the Lviv region provided itself with greenhouse vegetables by only 30%, and most Ukrainian products are intended for export. Foreign experience in designing agricultural complexes is often represented by objects of mixed-use that also include public use functions. Much of the modern complexes of organic production include the function of agritourism, while in Ukraine typologically similar agro-industrial are ordinary greenhouses or fields. The territories of such agricultural complexes do not have a great variety of functional zones or landscape techniques, in contrast to foreign examples. The most common greenhouse system of cultivation is hydroponics - a method of growing plants without soil, using water with mineral nutrient solutions. The most effective subsystem is aquaponics - a combination of hydroponics and aquaculture. It needs the least additional fertilizers and is the most recirculating and self-sufficient. Based on the results of the analysis of world and Ukrainian experience, a universal functional-planning scheme of the organization of agricultural complexes for the growing of organic products based on aquaponics has been formulated. According to the derived scheme, an architectural project of an agricultural complex for the growing of organic products on a hypothetical site in the Lviv region is proposed. Taking into account modern design experience, in addition to production, public functions are also provided, in particular the possibility of holding conferences, lectures, exhibitions and trade fairs. This will form a tourist magnet in the field of environmental technology, and help in the spread of environmental awareness in society.

Can an environmental awareness be raised in Society? Views of a Group of University Students

Araştırmada, Çevre Sağlığı Ana Bilim Dalında lisans üstü eğitime devam eden öğrencilerin çevre bilincine yönelik görüşlerinin belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Aydın Adnan Menderes Üniversitesi 2018-2019 eğitim öğretim yılı, Çevre Sağlığı Ana Bilim Dalı’nda lisans üstü eğitime devam eden 8 öğrenci araştırmanın çalışma grubunu oluşturmuştur. Çalışma grubu maksimum çeşitlilik örneklemesine göre belirlenmiştir. Çalışmada, nitel araştırma yöntemiyle durum çalışması deseni kullanılmıştır. Veriler, doküman analizi ile toplanmıştır. Verilerin değerlendirilmesinde tümevarımcı içerik analizi yöntemi kullanılmıştır. 
 Öğrencilere sorulan sorular temelinde; toplumda çevre bilincinin oluşmama nedenleri ve çevre bilincinin geliştirilmesine yönelik öneriler olmak üzere iki kategori ve bunlarla ilgili tema ve alt temalar belirlenmiştir. Öğrencilerin çevre bilincine yönelik görüşleri doğrultusunda bulgular yorumlanmıştır. Sonuç olarak, öğrenciler çevre bilincinin gelişmemesinde çok boyutlu faktörlerin etkili olduğunu, toplumun farkındalığının artırılmasında, uygulanabilir ve her yaş ve eğitim düzeyindeki bireyleri kapsayan ve arkasına medyanın ve devletin desteğini alan farklı eğitim modellerinin kullanılmasının önemli olduğunu vurgulamışlardır.

PUBLIC AWARENESS OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY: CASE OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

The paper aimed to identify the awareness and behavior of the population of Slovakia concerning the circular economy. Awareness of the circular economy is a vital factor in effective public participation. The quality of the environment also depends on the level of environmental awareness in society. The circular economy is a very complex issue which requires involvement of all actors in society. The circular economy is currently an actively discussed topic, and therefore we focused on examining the level of awareness of this issue. In general, it is perceived mainly as an economic model that takes the environment into account and prioritizes active waste management. The conducted survey focused on the level of awareness in Slovak respondents. The questionnaire was designed to include all principles of circular economy. We focused on determining the rate of recycling, reusing, reducing, and also the new concept of refusing. Consequently, several hypotheses were analyzed to identify the degree of involvement of the population. At the same time, the survey was intended to introduce the respondents to the idea that they too can participate more actively in the principles of circular economy. In the introduction, we defined the theoretical basis and principles of the circular economy. Subsequently, in the Methodology section, we identified the techniques used to process the questionnaire survey. The Research section describes the outputs and analyzes the established hypotheses. In the discussion, we summarized the results from the Research section and mentioned some of the authors who had handled the same issue in the past. The Conclusion section summarizes the research paper.

Green Supplier Selection via an Integrated Multi-Attribute Decision Making Approach

The environmental awareness of society and the global competition market has increased significantly due to the environmental problems that happen today. Companies have recognized the importance of focusing on environmental issues in order to be strong in a modern competitive business environment. Therefore, environmental factors are taken into consideration during the supplier selection process, which is an important decision point in the supply chain. In this study, two robust multi-attribute decision making techniques, Intuitionistic Fuzzy AHP (IF-AHP) and PROMETHEE, are used in an integrated way to better handle this selection problem. The steps are clearly explained in the proposed methodology. First, the relative weights of the criteria are determined by IF-AHP, which allows decision makers (DMs) to deal with the uncertainty of the evaluation process. Subsequently, the weights of criteria obtained are used in the PROMETHEE method for the best ranking of alternative suppliers. An application is performed in the air filtration industry to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.

Personalized Life Cycle Assessment – Reflecting Individuality within the Methodological Framework

Growing environmental awareness in society increasingly influences individual everyday decisions, such as which product to buy or how to sustainably use it. Yet, available information to support these decisions is often limited, or difficult to understand particularly regarding sustainability. Effective ways of communicating environmental impacts of individual decisions are required to close this gap. While Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an established tool to evaluate environmental impacts of products and services and support environmental decision-making, the results are typically standardized and based on statistical or averaged data. However, for individuals, this information might be irrelevant, as it neglects personal situation, behavior, information need, or individual level of expertise. In tackling those central issues of personalization in LCA, this article focuses on two main questions: How can individual aspects be addressed in LCA and at which stages of the methodology can LCA be personalized? For this purpose, the ISO 14040/44 standards are analyzed regarding individuality, and current approaches in literature are presented. In an explorative approach, this research identifies two general approaches of personalizing LCA. A personalized Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) enables evaluating the environmental impacts of personal(ized) products and conditions. A broader personalization approach based on the flexibility of the methodological framework of LCA aims at providing understandable and relevant results for individual stakeholders. This article provides an overview, outlines key aspects of this vision, and points out further research needs to bring the concept into application.

A simulation-based methodology for the analysis of the effect of lean tools on energy efficiency: An application in power distribution industry

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in energy consumption in manufacturing systems due to the rising environmental awareness in society as well as the necessity of being cost-effective in the global competitive environment. Companies have to take measures to decrease their unnecessary energy consumption while maintaining their throughput. In this context, lean manufacturing is regarded as one of the most significant management initiatives for energy management, since it intensifies the effective utilization of resources via the identification and elimination of wastes. In this paper, a holistic methodology, which integrates Energy Value Stream Mapping, experimental design and simulation, is developed with the aim of analyzing and reducing the energy consumption within Lean Transformation. Moreover, the effects of unevenness (mura) and overburden (muri), as root causes of waste (muda), on energy consumption has been addressed for the first time. The proposed methodology is applied to a real-life cable ladder manufacturing system and its feasibility is demonstrated. The results of the application showed that the adaptation of cellular manufacturing, pull system and mistake-proofing yielded approximately 72.37% reduction in energy consumption.

Desafios da educação ambiental nas escolas municipais do município de Caçador – SC

O crescente questionamento a respeito de como o ser humano está interagindo com o Ambiente, sugere que nossas ações estão se acumulando em problemas ambientais preocupantes. Despertar a consciência ambiental na sociedade é algo imprescindível, no entanto, saber tratar desta temática é tão ou mais importante. Nesse sentido, foi realizado um diagnóstico por meio de um questionário, para averiguar como as escolas municipais do município de Caçador - SC trabalham com a Educação Ambiental e, quais as principais dificuldades enfrentadas. A aplicação "in loco" do questionário foi acompanhada da visitação nas dependências das escolas, a fim de conhecer o contexto que as mesmas estão inseridas. Foi evidenciado que a E. A. nas referidas escolas enfrenta inúmeros desafios, desde interpretação de seu significado e aplicação, até problemas de infraestrutura das escolas e de capacitação dos docentes. Para a efetivação da E. A. nas escolas é necessário, sobretudo, capacitar os educadores, uma vez que, o trabalho de ensinar Educação Ambiental requer muito conhecimento, persistência e a procura constante da dinamização das atividades, para realmente consolidar uma Educação de qualidade.

MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE ARGENTINEAN PRESS

The media play an essential role in the construction of social reality and consequently knowledge of what is reported in the media is essential to understanding social attitudes towards significant issues such as climate change. The assumption here is that more and/or better information fosters a clearer understanding of ecological issues, environmental awareness in society, and contributes to a transformation of values, attitudes and behavior. Few authors focus on the role of journalism in the mass communication of climate change in Latin American countries; however, these countries are very important in international negotiations because they possess most of the natural reserves to be protected at this crucial time, the “post-Kyoto” stage. For these reasons, Argentina is chosen as the focus of this study.

An Ozone Reactor Design with Various Electrod Configurations

Environmental pollution is increasing, including water pollution due to industrial and household. To overcome this, there are three main concerns, namely the policy and environmental management, environmental awareness of society, and utilization of appropriate technologies to overcome pollution. This study is an attempt to overcome the problems of environmental pollution by designing, creating, and applying appropriate technology to make Ozone reactor with high-voltage corona discharge plasma technology. There are some methods of electrod configuration, namely wire-cylinder, spiral-cylinder, wire-cylinder with Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD), and spiral-cylinder with DBD. Corona discharge occurs between high-voltage electrod of each configuration ionize Oxygen flowed in the reactor, thus generating plasma and forming Ozone. The test of four Ozone reactors have been done by wastewater treatment in the form of soft drink samples, obtain the fading colors of wastewater, which is increasingly fade over many cycles of waste treatment process conducted in Ozon reactor. Based on comparison of four of Ozone reactor, it is obtained waste water treatment more maximal on reactor Ozone configuration of spiral-cylinder electrod with DBD. Keywords: Ozone reactor, electrods configuration, corona discharge, wastewater DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v1i2.79

Environmental Performance and Climate Policy

This study’s ultimate goal is to analyze environmental performance (EP) at firm level and the effectiveness of environmental policy along with other possible determinants. Especially, the empirical analysis aims at exploring the relationship between the actual EP of firms in terms of CO2 emissions per output unit, and one aspect of Swedish environmental policy, the CO2-tax. Since Sweden was the first country to introduce a specific CO2-tax in 1991 we believe that the Swedish case may serve as an appropriate “test bench” for analyzing EP and the effectiveness of environmental policy in general. To achieve our objective we use a panel data of Swedish manufacturing spanning over the period 1990-2004. The results suggest that EP has improved in all sectors of manufacturing. We also see that production increases while emissions decrease in many sectors, indicating a decoupling of economic growth and environmental degradation. Furthermore, firms’ EP responds to changes in the CO2-tax and fossil fuel price, but is more sensitive to the tax, indicating different EP behavior among firms depending on why the cost of fossil fuels change. Several sectors also display a positive tendency over time in EP, which may suggest that EP is to some extent stimulated by an overall boost in environmental awareness in society and firms.

Wetland Restoration in the Mancha Occidental Aquifer, Spain: A Critical Perspective on Water, Agricultural, and Environmental Policies

Abstract Conflicts between intensive groundwater use and wetland conservation are widespread throughout arid and semiarid regions worldwide. These have become more significant wherever there has been a synchronism between pumping‐based human development and the awakening of an environmental awareness in society. The Mancha Occidental aquifer provides an example of such an occurrence, which has given rise to noteworthy social conflicts. This paper presents a cross‐policy analysis for wetland restoration measures, establishing the main reasons why funding‐intensive agricultural, environmental, and water policies have only attained marginal success in recovering the area’s aquatic ecosystems.

Sustainability science and engineering: the emergence of a new metadiscipline.

A case is made for growth of a new metadiscipline of sustainability science and engineering. This new field integrates industrial, social, and environmental processes in a global context. The skills required for this higher level discipline represent a metadisciplinary endeavor, combining information and insights across multiple disciplines and perspectives with the common goal of achieving a desired balance among economic, environmental, and societal objectives. Skills and capabilities that are required to support the new metadiscipline are summarized. Examples of integrative projects are discussed in the areas of sustainability metrics and integration of industrial, societal, and environmental impacts. It is clear that a focus on green engineering that employs pollution prevention and industrial ecology alone are not sufficient to achieve sustainability, because even systems with efficient material and energy use can overwhelm the carrying capacity of a region or lead to other socially unacceptable outcomes. To meet the educational and human resource needs required for this new discipline, the technological and environmental awareness of society must be elevated and a sufficient and diverse pool of human talent must be attracted to this discipline.