Ana Júlia Teixeira Senna

DETERMINATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL RISK INDEX OF THE FACILITIES OF A FEDERAL MULTICAMPUS INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

The concern about sustainable development has been gaining momentum at public and private organizations, and they include Higher Education Institutions (HEI). For those organizations which have not yet adopted an Environmental Management System (SEM), a preliminary step consists in a survey and analysis of the environmental aspects and impacts. Therefore, the goal of this paper consisted in conducting a Survey of the Environmental Aspects and Impacts (SEAI) of a unit of a Federal Multicampus Institution of Higher Education, with the use of the Failures Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) tool, identifying the Environmental Risk Index (ERI). The choice of this method stemmed, basically, from the possibility to assess the environmental risks by virtue of the facility in implementing corrective actions, thus generating a list of actions to be developed in several time stages, allowing for beginning a SEM plan. After a collective visit to the venues, the environmental impacts and aspects of the following environments were verified on the spot: library / study hall; staff room / Educational Development Nucleus (EDN); recreation hall and corridors; restrooms; student administration services and laboratories. Through this survey it was possible to ascertain that the major potential cause of the environmental impacts is the poorly maintained electrical system.

Environmental Management in the Public Sector: Perception of Employees of the Municipality of São Gabriel (RS)

Good environmental management practices, as necessary for the optimization of resources, reduction of waste and pollution reduction, should not be exercised only by the companies. Public bodies such as municipalities, must also have a commitment to such practices, serving as an example to the whole society. Therefore, these bodies should be able to train and educate their employees, so that the performance of environmental management practices is done continuously and not only on a few occasions. This study was conducted in the Municipality of Sao Gabriel (RS), and to obtain the data, drafted a questionnaire. It was found that there is a lack of uniformity with regard to environmental management practices at city hall. While some sectors of employees reported having to collection bins, other sectors did not have them. Additionally, for some employees the environmental management practices are important for the achievement of their work, while for others it is an irrelevant issue. It can be concluded that in such situations it becomes necessary the intervention of the government so that there is, in fact, the implementation of environmental management projects and programs for environmental education and awareness of its employees. It is possible that many of these servers do not adopt environmental management practices simply because they lack the necessary education and awareness. Acting this way, the public agencies would have greater credibility when you charge environmentally responsible businesses and individuals.

ANALYZING THE BEHAVIOR OF CONSUMERS OF ECOLOGICALLY CORRECT PRODUCTS: THE CASE OF RICE PRODUCTS CERTIFIED WITH IRGA’S ENVIRONMENTAL LABEL

Lifestyles, consumption and industrial production have, over the years, been supported by the indiscriminate use of environmental resources, harming the ecosystems and jeopardizing environmental quality. The need to minimize these impacts gave rise to clean production systems, consisting in production processes geared towards preserving raw materials and energy, eliminating toxic wastes and polluting emissions and, with regard to products, the idea is to reduce their negative impacts along their life cycle. The rice production chain was one of the pioneers in the certification of eco-friendly rice products, in the production of energy from rice husk, and in the use of cleaner technologies. However, what was not known was the level of information of the consumers regarding these practices and the development of products certified with the environmental seal. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to characterize the behavior of the consumers who have opted for ecologically correct products in the municipality of de Sao Gabriel (RS). One hundred and fifty-five consumers were interviewed, in five supermarkets in the town of Sao Gabriel (RS). The area planted to rice in this municipality reaches approximately 29,000 hectares (IBGE, 2009) and one rural holding certified with IRGA’s environmental Seal in the 2009/10 crop year. The findings of this survey will be a good help for defining the type of packaging for the rice certified with IRGA’s environmental seal, for selecting the retail outlets responsible for distributing the product, for the communication strategies to be used and for defining the markets that are to absorb the certified final product.

ANÁLISE DAS PRÁTICAS DE GESTÃO AMBIENTAL EM PROPRIEDADES RURAIS DO MUNICÍPIO DE SANTA MARGARIDA DO SUL-RS

Man’s quest for survival has always affected the natural environment. Environmental transformations got increasingly intense with the advent of industrialization in towns and the introduction of agricultural mechanization in the rural areas. The activities involving agricultural and livestock production, if not managed properly, could affect environmental stability and, therefore, interfere with sustainability at farm level. The objective of this research is to characterize the environmental management practices common in rural holdings located in the municipality of Santa Margarida do Sul. Initially, a bibliographic survey on environmental management, rural extension and sustainability was conducted. Afterwards, an interview itinerary was set up, articulated with theoretical references, geared towards rural producers. Data analysis showed that most rural producers are concerned about rural environmental management, however, some of them have not yet adopted it on their holdings, that is why it was ascertained OLIVEIRA & SENNA v(8), no 8, p. 1602-1610, SET-DEZ, 2012. Rev. Elet. em Gestao, Educacao e Tecnologia Ambiental (e-ISSN: 2236-1170) http://cascavel.ufsm.br/revistas/ojs-2.2.2/index.php/reget 1603 that it is utterly important to implement environment education and extension initiatives directed towards rural producers.