Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2004. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005.

Thesis (M.S.)--Baylor University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-94).

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-81).

The thesis investigates the broad areas of accounting's adaptability in handling and reporting environmental effects. The main purposes of the study are: firstly. to draw together the literature of environmental concern and accounting: secondly to establish whether the use of environmental accounting is practised. to ascertain whether there is a suitable medium for environmental reporting and lastly to formulate a theoretical environmental performance model. The overall orientation of the research was to consider whether accounting should break away from its traditional economic and financial principles and broaden its scope to embrace a system that echoes with "environmental concern". In order to address these issues. the methods of evaluating environmental effects are looked at, together with the methods for accounting and reporting them. For these purposes, data were collected using a cross-sectional corporate methodology. The instrument used for the survey was the postal questionnaire. The construction and content of the questionnaire were influenced by the information gleaned from the literature review and, in the main, it covered qualitative, quantitative and financial information. The evidence gathered from the research has shown that environmental accounting and reporting are being practised by a variety of companies and are also becoming more widespread, which demonstrates that accounting is playing an important role in handling environmental transactions. The research has also shown that environmental accounting and reporting are gaining a broader perspective and now embrace environmental management systems. resource efficiency, and general environmental stewardship. Overall, the study recognises and concludes that environmental accounting and reporting, although spreading. should now be supported by environmental accounting and reporting guidelines from the accountancy profession, and in time, by legislation. Also environmental reports should be verified by external auditors in order to improve their integrity and prevent them from being used as a public relations exercise.

This study begins with a discussion of environmental education. Various definitions, aims objectives and guiding principles for effective environmental education are included. The term environmental literacy is introduced with its. defmitions and three levels of environmental literacy (nominal, functional and operational). The study also provides an overview of the definitions, aims, principles and goals of sustainable development. The relationship between environmental education, environmental literacy, environmentally responsible behaviour, and education for sustainability is outlined. It appears that many teachers are not well informed about environmental concerns. Therefore, in this study an attempt is made .to develop and standardize an instrument to measure the level of environmental literacy of teachers, from both primary and high schools. Ten concepts related to environmental literacy were developed. A questionnaire was developed using these identified concepts. Content validity was established before the questionnaire was presented to the teachers. An item analysis was carried out for each aspect of environmental literacy as well as for the questionnaire as a whole. It was determined that the questionnaire could be considered as both a reliable and valid instrument to measure the level of environmental literacy of teachers. An important fmding from this study is that there is a significant difference between environmental literacy of teachers who received training in environmental education and teachers who did not receive any training in environmental education. It was also found that there is a significant difference between environmental literacy of teachers teaching in the different learning areas. The instrument developed for this study can be used as a baseline to improve the pre-service and in-service training of teachers in environmental education. The study concludes with recommendations for teacher education and empowerment of local communities through environmental education. Possible further research is also highlighted. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Didactics)

The focus of the research for this thesis is the development of critical pedagogy for a greater understanding of environment/development issues among sixth form A Level geography students. The thesis first considers the concept of sustainable development which can provide a framework for supporting the close integration of environment and development issues. Caution is necessary, however, given the various interests it serves and resulting contradictions inherent in proposed radical change within traditional economic, social and political structures. Within this context student perceptions of environment/development issues were investigated using phenomenography as a methodology. However, a critique of the methodology was necessary, given contradictions in accepting multiple realities of phenomena based on conceptualisation through experience while also seeking a limited number of categories of description of phenomena. Out of the action research undertaken, a curriculum module based on critical pedagogy (influenced by critical theory) was developed to encourage critical thinking by students on a case study example of an environment/development issue. The research shows that the students could perceive environment/development issues as complex inter-related phenomena, but only to a limited extent did it enable them to be confident in challenging systems which perpetuate or exacerbate some of the problems related to the issues.

Orientador: Adilson Renófio / Banca: Aldo Roberto Ometto / Banca: Renato de Campos / Resumo: Este trabalho faz uma análise sobre a problemática ambiental envolvida com a produção agrícola de milho de uma grande unidade produtiva localizada no município de Cristalina - GO. Atualmente, as principais características do perfil agrícola deste município são: oitavo maior produtor de milho do Brasil, maior município com área irrigaga da América Latina, um fod municípios brasileiros que mais colhe milho por hectare e um grande consumidor de tecnologia voltada à agricultura. Utiliza como método para essa análise uma abordagem simplificada de condução de uma Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida (ACV) para avaliar o panorama ambiental associado à produção agrícola do milho. Tal ACV é desenvolvida ao se levar em consideração tanto o processo agrícola de produção do grão de milho, como também uma das etapas de reprodução da semente deste grão em solo agrícola. Para isso, utiliza quatro categorias de impacto. O consumo de recursos renováveis e de recursos não renováveis envolvidos no ciclo de vida analisado são avaliados quantitativamente. Já os graus de periculosidade ambiental e de toxidade associado a cada agrotóxico consumido são avaliados semi-quantitativamente. Assim, as principais conclusões deste estudo são: processo de produção do grão de milho responde por mais impactos que que o processo de produção da semente deste grão no ciclo de vida analisado, metodologia simplificada de ACV pode ser um importante instrumento de avaliação ambiental, mesmo que ainda existam algumas ineficiências metodológicas com relação a ferramenta ACV / Abstract: This work is an analysis of the environment issue involved with the agricultural production of corn in a farm located in the town of Cristalina - GO. Currently, the main features of this agriucultural city are: the eighth producer of corn in Brazil, the largest with the irrigated area in Latin America, one of Brazil's municipalities to reap more corn per hectare and a large consumer-oriented technology to agriculture. Used as method for this analysis a simplified approach of conduction of a Life Cicle Assessment (LCA) to asses the environmental outlook associated with agricultural production of corn. This LCA developed by considerating both the process of agricultural production of corn, but also one of the steps to reproduce the seed of grain in agricultural soil. It uses four categories of impact. The consumption of renewable and nonrenewable resources involved in this life cycle analysis are avaluated quantitatively. The degree of toxicity and envivonment hazards associated with each pesticide consumed are assessed almost quantatively. Thus, the main conclusions of this study are: the production process of corn has more impact that the process of seed production process of corn has more impact than the process of production in the life cycle analyzed simplified methodology of LCA can be an important tool for environmental assessment, even there are still some inefficiencies with respect to methodological tool LCA / Mestre

Orientador: Vagner Cavenaghi / Banca: Edson Pinheiro de Lima / Banca: Otávio José de Oliveira / Resumo: Como alternativa às contemporâneas práticas que norteiam a sociedade capitalista e industrializada de consumo, as corporações encontram no desenvolvimento sustentável - movimento originado por conta do eminente conhecimento dos efeitos devastadores da atuação humana no planeta - uma motivação para que se efetuasse uma significativa alteração no direcionamento das práticas estabelecidas, objetivando o surgimento de pilares de uma nova fase, onde os paradigmas são outros: no lugar do esgotamento dos recursos naturais do planeta, agora a temática primordial tem o foco na sustentabilidade. Diversos modelos de sistemas de medição de desempenho foram desenvolvidos para promover uma visão balanceada do mercado, a identificação das demandas das partes interessadas e a tradução dessas demandas em medidas internas coerentes e capazes de serem transmitidas para toda a organização, visando ao atendimento dos objetivos empresariais. Entretanto, enquanto estes modelos foram propostos e implantados, surgiram novas demandas apoiadas no conceito do desenvolvimento sustentável, estimulando o surgimento de novos pensamentos para o sistema de manufatura. Diante desse cenário, emerge o conceito de Manufatura Sustentável em busca do desenvolvimento sustentável na produção industrial. O objetivo desta dissertação foi estruturar o pensamento da Manufatura Sustentável em uma empresa gráfica, por meio da realização de levantamento bibliográfico e da construção de estudo de campo, ampliando o conhecimento acerca do tema. Foi utilizado o método de pesquisa-ação, o que permitiu a interação e a avaliação do tema frente a pontos considerados pela literatura. A estruturação do pensamento da Manufatura Sustentável trouxe resultados nas dimensões: social, ambiental e econômica... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: As an alternative to the current practices which guide the capitalist and industrialized society of consumption, the sustainable development trend originated by the eminent knowledge of the devastating effects of human acting on the planet - a motivation to make it a significant change in the direction of established practices, aiming at the emergence of pillars of a new phase, where the paradigms are different: instead of depletion of natural resources of the planet, now the theme has the primary focus on sustainability. Several models of performance measurement systems were developed to promote a balanced view of the market, identification of the stakeholders demands and the translation of these demands into coherent internal measures and capable of being transmitted to the whole organization, aiming at business goals. However, while these models have been proposed and implemented, new demands emerged supported by the concept of sustainable development, encouraging the emergence of new thinking for manufacturing system. Against this backdrop, the emerging concept of Sustainable Manufacturing in pursuit of sustainable development in industrial production. The goal of this thesis was to structure the thinking of the sustainable manufacturing in a printing company, by performing a literature review and the construction field study, expanding the knowledge about the subject. The method of action research was used, which allowed the interaction and evaluate the topic in front of the points considered in the literature. The thinking of Sustainable Manufacturing brought results social, environmental and economical dimensions for the company, and the formatting of the results in the Sustainability Report has promoted a process of transparent communication between the company and its stakeholders. The results... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

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