This book is at once a guide for sustainable development professionals and a handbook for those interested in further studies on sustainability. It not only explains and exemplifies the issues of sustainability discussed herein, but it also offers a resource for practitioners in business, local authorities, non-governmental organisations and indeed individuals, wanting to undertake activities directed towards sustainable development. This book consists of 15 chapters supplemented with descriptions of sustainability tools and related case studies in Poland. These case studies are particularly useful for both teaching and practical application. In preparing this book, the authors have applied their extensive practical and research experience in this

than 6,000 hectares of arable land turn The second half of the twentieth century will pass into history as an epoch that saw great irreversibly into desert (Tolba, 1992). During the last 30 years, human activity acceleration in technological development, the birth of electronics, the first space flights, and has created new deserts in Africa and Asia covering areas as large as Saudi Arabia. evolutionary developments in information sci ence, transportation and materials technol Intensive exploitation of the land has led to accelerated erosion of the best soils, and the ogies. Rapid industrial development spurred a significant increase in gross product on process is intensifying in parts of India, China, Russia, Ukraine and the United States. Without a global scale. Between 1950 and 1990 the global population doubled, but gross product urgent remedial action these trends could lead to complete impoverishment of these areas in increased fivefold and its value sevenfold (Brown, 1991). the decades ahead (Brown, 1984).

This paper aims to examine the extent to which the sustainable development (SD) perspective is integrated into Polish major evaluation projects and to discern the challenges for incorporating the SD approach in evaluation research and practice in general. It will also try to identify the methodological challenges related to the SD evaluation procedures in Poland. The paper will overview these issues on the basis of a complete database of evaluation reports concerning EU structural funds implementation in Poland as well as selected evaluation reports and expert opinions commissioned by the Polish Ministry for Regional Development. The adoption of the SD perspective in Polish evaluation studies is still virtually inexistent, despite some positive trends in the field of building the evaluation culture, which are supported by the requirements imposed by the European Union.

This book examines the development and adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Polish businesses and social and environmental organizations, and analyzes the corresponding impact at the strategic and operational level in these fields. It presents the status quo of CSR in Poland from three main perspectives: The first presents theoretical works based on current research and recent advances, while the next takes a closer look at empirical findings in the different fields of CSR (e.g. finance, reporting, law) and presents best practices from major international companies operating on the Polish market. Lastly, it presents a range of case studies from small and medium companies and NGOs in Poland and gives an outlook on the future development. Readers will benefit from an in-depth discussion of the opportunities and challenges that businesses and organizations in Poland are currently facing with regard to traditional national values and the influx of new cultural and social dimensions and patterns produced by international businesses entering the Polish market. Taken together, the lessons learned, case studies and snapshots of the latest developments provide a comprehensive overview of the state of the art of CSR in Poland, as well as a blueprint that can be applied to other Eastern European countries.

In the face of climate change and resulting environmental and social crises, sustainable consumption has become a widely discussed issue and a key plank of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The majority of the sustainable consumption research uses the SDG framework, but this only serves to reinforce an individualistic, efficiency-based approach and it does not sufficiently cover the specific situation of transition economies. In contrast, this volume promotes a collective approach to sustainable consumption, and combines general theoretical issues with empirical examples from the Polish economy. The first part of the book presents a theoretical approach to collective consumption which has the core concepts of justice and human nature at its heart. This approach emphasises the role of collective rationality and categorises aspects of sustainable consumption as a common and public good. The second part investigates diversified aspects of sustainability, including socio-economic inequalities as barriers to sustainable consumption, consumer sovereignty in the context of current legal regulations, and the impact on employees of changes to the types and conditions of work. It also examines the sharing economy and the legal conditions of its development. The third part adopts a political perspective focusing on the state policies enhancing the role of investment in public goods, analyses photovoltaic programmes which promote prosumption and indicates challenges to sustainability faced by many countries such as the energy crisis, sustainable finance, and cooperative platforms. This book will be of great interest to researchers and scholars interested in sustainability and consumption issues in economics, management, law, public administration, and political science.

Sustainable Marketing and the Circular Economy in Poland outlines the specific challenges around formulating an organisation's marketing strategy in line with the circular economy (CE) framework. This book helps to solve the problem of ineffective pro-environmental programmes and marketing tools, which are currently used by enterprises to make their activities more sustainable. The authors identify key concepts and strategies of sustainable marketing to highlight the trends and development directions of marketing activities of modern enterprises. Focussing on Poland as a central case study, the book is illustrated with examples of organisations that are implementing sustainable marketing activities that are compatible with the CE model. It also presents the results of studies which examined the pro-environmental marketing efforts of small- and medium-sized enterprises, non-governmental organisations and other actors in Poland. To conclude, the authors put forward recommendations for CE network stakeholders regarding sustainable marketing management, focussing specifically on how to avoid accusations of greenwashing and other unethical organisational behaviour. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of green marketing, sustainable business and the CE, as well as entrepreneurs and business professionals looking to formulate sustainable marketing strategies.

Papers commissioned in 2012 from past laureates to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Blue Planet Prize, established by the Asahi Glass Foundation in 1992. (Preface, pages ix and x)