<p>During the United Nations conference on Environment and Development, in Rio de Janeiro 1992, the concept Sustainable Development was established to reach a future Development that is Sustainable and not damaging the environment. To do this, environmental, economical and social aspects must be seen as linked.</p><p>Since then the progress of the understanding and practice of the concept in different parts of the world is unknown. This study therefore gives a comparison between two countries, Sweden and Brazil, and offers knowledge about the ongoing work with Sustainable Development. The study describes and compares the understanding, attitude and practice of the concept Sustainable Development among students and professionals. It also provides knowledge about the current state of implementation of the concept.</p><p>The study was divided into two parts. The first, a quantitative study made through subjective measurements, through questionnaires, to evaluate university students’ understanding, attitude and ways of practicing Sustainable Development. The second study was a qualitative study that took place at Environmental Department where the professionals were studied to enable a description of their work with Sustainable Development. The two studies were also compared and analyzed jointly to see if the results seemed to reflect on each other.</p><p>The Swedish and the Brazilian students have a different understanding of what is most important to Sustainable Development. Brazilian students are generally more interested in environmental issues. The Brazilian students also feel that they have a greater opportunity to affect the environment positively and save more energy. Swedish students however recycle and sort their waste more. The Brazilian´s interest for the environment is increasing while it is decreasing in Sweden. Possible reasons could be the different ways the Environmental Departments work with education towards the public. Students from a higher level of education show a greater understanding for Sustainable Development, so do the Environmental students compared to the others. This shows that education has a positive effect on the awareness for the environment. Education to the public as a whole could furthermore contribute to reaching a Sustainable Development.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:hh-3038 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Hansson, Anna |
| Publisher | Halmstad University, School of Business and Engineering (SET) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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