Relevant Articles for the Symposium @ Corvinus U.
June 9, 2008 by Frances and John Morelli | Filed under: In the industry and in the workplace [1, 2, 3]
These are some articles and websites I found about the status of environmental management in Hungary in order to help me put the workshop into their context. I thought they would be helpful for you all too:
- http://ezproxy.rit.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy.rit.edu/pqdweb?did=1340887871&sid=2&Fmt=6&clientId=3589&RQT=309&VName=PQDGyorgy Malovics, Gabor Racz, Sascha Kraus. “The role of environmental management systems in Hungary – Theoretical and empirical insights*.” Journal for East European Management Studies 12, no. 3 (January 1, 2007): 180-204. http://www.proquest.com.ezproxy.rit.edu/ (accessed June 9, 2008). This article discussed the presence of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Hungary [80% of exported goods from Hungary come from foreign companies] and how that presence has led to the importation of not only those funds but of principles such as environmental management systems
- http://www.eeac-net.org/bodies/hungary/hu_okt.htm The Website of Hungary’s National Council on the Environment Sandor participates in this council that acts as an advisory board for new government regulation and policy. The council is made up of the Ministor for Environment and Water, academia, NGO reps, and industry. The council is also a member of the larger European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Council (EEAC).
- http://www.kovet.hu/view/main/224.html The Hungarian member of the International Network for Environmental Management and CSR Europe Interestingly their “Tools for Business” were very similar to the tools listed after the May conference for the EM in the workplace. Their recent projects include: Training for the Future- Sustainability Vocational Training for Decision Makers and Managers, EMAS Easy for SMEs Coaching Program, and Eco-land (Focused on local government sustainable development). They focus a lot on small business, the EMAS environmental management system, local government, and CSR verification. And their article on Alternative Entrepreneurs is very a la Morelli
- http://www.environmental-savings.com/ Kovet published their annual report, this time about “Financial savings with environmental measures” titled Money Back Through the Window. They categorized environmental projects from high hanging fruit, low hanging fruit, and (my favorite) washed fruit on the table that needed no investment. With just the “washed fruit on the table” projects the organizations studied saved over 12 million euros a year. Unfortunately all other details are in Hungarian.
Some current environmental news coming from Hungary:
- European Parliament is going to vote soon on a new “Directive on the environmental quality standards in the field of water policy for the European rivers” which is a big deal in effectively handling “cross border” pollution of rivers like the Danube and the tributaries that flow into Hungary from Austria.
- Hungary is leading a fight to change its and its other Eastern European neighbors’ contributions to the EU’s CO2 reduction proposal. They argue that the baseline year used is not fair because it is too low. The baseline year used by the EU members aligns with a large drop of CO2 emissions in Eastern Europe due to “economic weakness” after the break up of the Soviet Union.
- A Slovenian nuclear plant manually shut down due to a water leak but lied to the EU stating the shut down was a normal exercise. Slovenia apologized this weekend to Italy, Austria, and Hungary.