This thesis focuses on the approach of Slovenia to the promotion of the state abroad. It is a small country with two million inhabitants, suffering from poor visibility and being confused with Slovakia. Slovenia has decided to change this by creating a national brand. Positive perception of a country contributes to economic development of the state. It is also an ideal means by which small states can maximise their influence in the international arena. The thesis describes the gradual development of the national brand and its implementation. The thesis also describes the institutional background, the work being coordinated by the Government Office for Communication. Slovenia has succeeded in creating the brand of a green country with a quality of life for all. For a national brand to be successful, it must be based on real national priorities. In the case of Slovenia, ecology is also part of its domestic and foreign policy priorities. The monitored indicators show that Slovenia's environmental performance varies in different areas. In some areas Slovenia is a leader in the EU, in others, for example in transport, its performance is below average. The work concludes that the label is based on real foundations because some part of environmental policy is effective.

There are many reasons why smaller businesses should have an environmental management system, but also many difficulties, such as limitations in the time and resources available, and the size of the environmental impacts. How can a small business providing intellectual services make environmental improvements by creating and implementing an environmental management system (EMS)? This report is a case study on how to create an EMS. It was carried out with the management consultancy Radical Sports Management (RSM), a UK registered company based in Chamonix, France. Background studies on EMS, international standards of certifications of EMS, green procurement and carbon offsetting were carried out. With this background knowledge an EMS was developed in association with the company on site in Chamonix, France, and by correspondence. The environmental management system itself included An environmental policy A baseline assessment where the activities were divided into different areas, and their environmental aspects were scored from 1-5 on significance, potential and manageability to separate the more relevant aspects from the not so relevant. The process revealed that the most important environmental aspects were linked to production and handling of waste, transport and development of sports equipment. An investigation of the concerned legislation in France (which handles waste and chemicals) A research of how to decrease the environmental impact of relevant aspects An action plan where the chosen solutions to the environmental problems and the environmental targets were listed together with the methods to implement these and make them functional A monitoring document where the management can rate the progress of the different actions An auditing document to aid in the evaluation of the EMS Recommendations of how to make continuous improvements The following conclusions were made during this project: A small actor is dependent on its partners, suppliers, and other actors around it. It can make a difference by influencing its partners by providing information to open their eyes to existing possibilities and supporting them when they choose to take steps towards environmental solutions. The input from both management and employees is vital to have an organic EMS that evolves with the company. Establishing responsibilities at all levels of the enterprise is an effective method to reach a higher level of involvement, but it is also important that there is a feedback in the system, and lines of communications that are in function. The level of detail, the number and size of improvements to be made, the cost of the improvements and the documentation of the EMS must be kept at a level where it feels manageable to the company. Environmental Management Systems Tove Fritzell For a company such as RSM, that doesn’t have any large costs of material, energy and handling emissions and waste, the primary benefits of the EMS will be competitive advantage, attracting new customers and markets; and improved image towards public, regulators, investors and lenders, which make communication, marketing and advertising essential. Quantification of activities associated to environmental is important to perform a good baseline assessment, achieve better target formulations, monitoring and reviews of environmental performance.

Bibliography: p. 105-107. / The imminent promulgation of the Environment Conservation Act, No. 73 of 1989, which made provision for the devolution of responsibility for environmental matters to the third tier of government authority, was the primary motivation for this research, conducted throughout South Africa between 1988 and 1990. Local authority officials were concerned that they did not have the knowledge, manpower and infrastructural resources to accept this responsibility. This concern was reinforced by the rapid urbanization of predominantly disadvantaged communities for whom little provision had been made. A stratified selection for study purposes of urban areas from the whole of South Africa and all its population groups ensured a reasonable sample of metropolitan regions, regional centres, principle towns and smaller outlying urban areas. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives of government authorities, Non-Government and Community Organizations and practitioners, either implementing or interacting with environmentally related legislation at the local level. With the permission of all participants, the interviews were recorded on audio-cassettes and later transcribed by the interviewers using a word processing programme. Out of these transcriptions, approximately 1000 problem-and-solution groupings were identified and classified. The most widely held perceptions of factors constraining the resolution of urban environmental problems at local authority level were subsequently compared to the provisions of the Environment Conservation Act. It was found that these perceptions of factors requiring attention for the resolution of urban environmental problems are strongly linked to the establishment, maintenance and improvement of environments which contribute to a generally acceptable quality of life. This accords with only one of the four explicit provisions of the Environment Conservation Act. There is a widespread perception that until human needs (Maslow, 1968) are either satisfied or at least addressed, and the whole population incorporated into a more equitable legal framework, the successful implementation of environmental conservation in South Africa will be severely impaired. Furthermore, that the South African ' Government's adherence to the political ideology of separate development constitutes an abuse and exploitation of scarce resources. Recommendations are that the human needs of the whole population of South Africa must be addressed and environmentally destructive legislation repealed in order to truly resolve urban environmental problems, that the participation of the public in matters relating to the effective protection and controlled utilization of the environment be required, that administrative, natural and functional boundaries need to be aligned, and that the structure and responsibilities of bureaucratic hierarchies responsible for environmental management in urban areas need to be set out clearly.

Integration in the European Union (EU) in terms of the legal as well as economic spheres has grown in depth, scope and speed since its establishment. The EU has significantly affected various fields of policies within its member states, including the environment. This is understood as the 'Europeanisation process'. The Netherlands, considered one of the pioneering countries to establish environmental measures, has approximately 80% of its legislation in the environmental field derived from European legislation. The thesis seeks to answer how Dutch environmental policy has been affected by the EU over the past twenty years. The implementation process of three environmental directives is analysed concerning water, biodiversity and air, to understand this process. The concept of Europeanisation and the related theory of goodness of fit is applied to argue that the implementation process of European environmental directives in the Netherlands is effective if there are no major adjustments necessary in the national setting, i.e. there is no policy or institutional misfit between domestic and European legislation, and no veto players impede the process. On the other hand, the implementation process is significantly more complicated if the directive needs extensive transformations. It is concluded that...

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第18486号 / 地環博第120号 / 新制||地環||25(附属図書館) / 31364 / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻 / (主査)教授 宇佐美 誠, 教授 ショウ ラジブ, 准教授 森 晶寿 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program (MVP Program) has funded Community Resilience Building workshops in hundreds of communities over the past 6 years. The Planning Reports produced by these workshops offer valuable insight into the climate adaptation and climate justice priorities of Massachusetts municipalities. Climate justice literature holds that the impacts of climate change will be disproportionately felt by marginalized communities, and those addressing climate change should address the risks faced by those communities, referred to as Environmental Justice (EJ) Communities in Massachusetts. Using an inductive qualitative coding approach, this study analyzes 30 Planning Reports from towns with High, Medium and Low presence of EJ populations. The analysis found that the MVP program has been effective at incentivizing towns to plan for future climate change hazards, by gating funding for immediate projects behind a long-term planning process. The study also found that town Planning Reports tend to prioritize flooding adaptation and prevention over other climate hazards, even hazards that are externally reported to pose greater risk to the community. Finally, when discussing the protection of vulnerable populations, towns tend to define “vulnerable” narrowly as elderly populations, although some High-EJ towns broaden that definition to include other marginalized populations. The findings offer insight into the effectiveness of the MVP program for other states who might use it as a model. The findings can also demonstrate how municipalities in Massachusetts and beyond are planning to use climate adaptation funding as it is made available.