Ágnes Zsóka

The role of organisational culture in the environmental awareness of companies

The objective of the article is to highlight the role of environmental values in corporate pro-environmental behaviour. Among the five components of corporate environmental awareness, environmental values are of special importance, as is illustrated by the organisational culture of a Hungarian company showing consistent pro-environmental behaviour regarding all awareness components except values. Empirical research findings – arrived at with the help of Q-methodology – indicate the need for a stable and unambiguous integration of environmental values into organisational culture in order to achieve consistent pro-environmental behaviour at companies.

Environmental management practices in the manufacturing sector – Hungarian features in international comparison

The paper provides an overview of the state of corporate environmental management in Hungary compared to older EU and OECD states. It also explores the complex relationship between the implementation of environmental management practices and corporate environmental and business performance. Empirical evidence is taken from a comprehensive piece of research, carried out in OECD member countries, which explored motivation, decision-making procedures, and organisational structure of companies in relation to the design and implementation of environmental management tools and systems.

May spirituality lead to reduced ecological footprint? Conceptual framework and empirical analysis

Living a happy and satisfied life while staying within ecological limits of Earth is a challenge humanity must face during this century. As spirituality impacts our lives in both material and non-material ways, we may reasonably suppose that spiritual beliefs also have an impact on how one thinks about environmental degradation, how likely individuals will behave in a pro-environmental way and how it impacts ones ecological footprint. This article explores the links between a value-driven life and ecological impact, both theoretically and empirically. Our results suggest that traditional religious thinking, in-my-way spiritualism and green value-driven atheism are associated with an increased level of subjective wellbeing, while religious people also seem to be featured by a reduced level of ecological footprint. Materialism is supposed to be associated with a high level of ecological footprint and a low level of subjective wellbeing.

Corporate sustainability reporting: Scrutinising the requirements of comparability, transparency and reflection of sustainability performance

Companies of different size and sector regularly publish sustainability reports in order to record and disseminate their activities aimed at contributing to sustainable development and to reflect their corporate social responsibility. From the various existing suggestions for such reports, the principles and guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative are most widely used – at least among large companies. The very detailed guidelines and indicator system aim at supporting companies to provide relevant, balanced, comparable, accurate, timely, clear and reliable information on corporate activities and performance, while focusing on sustainability-context and stakeholder inclusiveness in their “non-financial” reporting. However, based on research into the content and quality of non-financial reporting, it is difficult to clearly conclude just how comparable and transparent the reports are, as well as to decide whether they truly reflect the sustainability performance of the reporting companies. The paper provides a literature review and a qualitative analysis on the reporting practice of 37 large companies.

Effective Choice of Consumer-Oriented Environmental Policy Tools for Reducing GHG Emissions

Due to the perceived and expected environmental impacts of climate change there is an urgent need to reduce Greenhouse Gasses (GHG) at each and every point of emission (see World Research Institute, 2010). The ongoing efforts of governments to establish and implement policies include investigating changes in consumer behaviour and attitudes towards sustainability. The often very high costs of measures makes economic analysis necessary in order to find out which technologically feasible abatement options are capable of realizing the largest emission reductions at least social cost (Csutora and Zilahy 1998, Urge-Vorsatz and Fule 1999, Creyts et al. 2007, Stern 2008). According to recent studies there is even space for “win-win” solutions as a number of options exist which can result in huge GHG reductions at a “negative cost”, meaning that those solutions are both beneficial from environmental and economic points of view. However, organisations often ask for external governmental support in order to implement those measures (Zilahy 2004) and individuals also regularly seem slow and inconsistent in transforming their positive environmental attitudes into environmentally aware consumption habits and reducing their levels of consumption (Rubik et al., 2009, Thogersen and Crompton, 2009, Nemcsicsne Zsoka, 2005).

Implementation of Water Framework Directive Obligations in Hungary: Estimating Benefits of Development Activities in Two Pilot Areas

Implementation of the Water Framework Directive entails several tasks for European Union member states including Hungary. One important issue is the estimation of economic benefits resulting from improvement of water quality and condition. Contingent valuation has been used in Hungary in two pilot areas: the natural river Tur and the artificial and less important Kallay Channel. Both areas can be found in the north-east of the country. Household willingness to pay for an improvement in the state of the water bodies is similar for both; most are ready to dedicate only a small proportion of their monthly income, equivalent to 0.5%. The relatively high proportion of zero offers can be mainly explained by the low level of income characteristic of the surveyed areas. The results of the survey can be used in a cost-benefit analysis to provide a basis for future programmes as well as coordinating international efforts for improving the water quality of catchment areas. In addition, companies also can make use of those results for their environmental performance evaluation processes.