Managing Environment Flashcards
environment in management process model
- Surrounds the entire model
- Emphasis on managing the near environment that directly affects individuals and families
ways we can manage environment
- Stewards of the earth
- Natural capital: from an economics perspective, the environment is natural capital that needs to be protected
- Sustainable development: ensuring that present and future social needs are met
- Product life cycle
- Reducing, reusing, recycling
environmentalism
- How to retain existing environmental resources; concern for environment
- Both social (“save x, y, z”) and physical
environmental problems
- Water: shortage, pollution (97% of world’s water unusable)
- Noise: any unwanted sound
- Energy: production, wastage, pollution
- Waste, recycling: integrated waste management
- Air quality: deterioration comes from many sources
costs of reducing energy use
- Installation
- Maintenance
- Time
- Effort required
- Poor disapproval
- Psychological cost: “felt deprivation”
methods of reducing energy use
- Efficiency investments (saves most money yet used least)
- Better management
- Curtailment of amenities
inaccurate estimates of saving money
- Overestimate savings when use curtailment and management
- Underestimate savings from efficiency investments
do equal billing policies help reduce use of energy?
- People consume more
- Distances usage from cost
- No price cues
- Concern: used by low-income and elderly people
BC hydro initiatives
- Recognize businesses/universities as meeting sustainable goals
- Households:
- Lighting rebates
- Fridge buyback
- Windows rebate program
generational differences (boomers vs. millennials, surveyed when they were same age)
- Personal effort to help environment
- Baby Boomer: 15%
- Millennial: 5%
- Clean-up programs
- Baby Boomer: 33%
- Millennial: 20%
deterrents to recycling
- Separation rule
- Storage system
- Removal procedure
why people don’t recycle (most to least)
- Inconvenient: 43%
- Time consuming: 40%
- Took up too much space: 33%
- Recycling as much as they could
- Used non-recycled items some other way (ie. Burning papers)
why people recycle
- Social responsibility: 82%
- Want to reduce landfill: 75%
- Reduce demand for raw materials: 53%
does recycling always help?
- NO!
- Resource consumption increases when your have option to recycle
- Especially when a product is free or the cost is paid by others (ie. Paper at the office, paper towels)
where do clothes go when they’re given to charity?
½ sold to rag industry, over 1/3 sold through thrift stores
Fast Fashion
- disposable fashion (Ex. H&M stores)
- Young women were innovators and early adopters
- Influenced by fashion media
- Clothes manufactured to wear a short time (<10 times)
- More textile waste than before (30% vs. 7%)
- Tend to dispose of clothing without considering further use of item or its environmental impact
- 36% donated to thrift stores, 7% resold and 7% recycled, and rest in trash
efforts to decrease textile waste
- Are great at recycling other items so have chance of encouraging textile recycling if convenient
- Oxfam organized clothes swapping events
- Ex. Marks & Spensers + Oxfam: every bag of unwanted M&S clothes donated received coupon for shopping
clothes swapping events
- Rotate homes
- Bring clothes, accessories, books, linens
- Set rules (ie. Bring 15 good-quality items and swap for 15)
5 common environmental themes
- Community of meaning and support
- Emotional affiliation
- Localized access to political discourses
- Personalization of the practice
- Identity formation
Community of meaning and support
Green bags were bought and used to communicate membership in an environmentally conscious local community
Emotional affiliation
- Avoiding plastic bags reminds them they are different or even better than others about the environment
- If deviate from using green bags, feel guilty
Localized access to political discourses
- Local sources (media, people) alerted them to environmental issue of plastic bags
- Then they began to notice stores that offered alternatives to plastic
Personalization of the practice
- Some used green bags to carry other things (books, items to parties)
- Some also took plastic bags to use for other purposes, but used green bags for groceries
Identity formation
Use of green bags began to shape their use of other environmentally-conscious behaviours
results from 2011 UK Environmental study
- Plastic is less polluting and toxic than paper and cotton
- To be less than the effect of a plastic bag, need to reuse cloth bag 327 times and paper bag 9 times
issues with cloth bags
- Bacterial contamination
- More frequent laundering needed
- Wrap some items in paper/plastic
variables that influence pro-environmental behaviours
- Demographics
- Attitudes (90% are concerned about the impact of their consumer choices on the environment, yet most don’t buy green products)
- Values
who adopts ecological innovations?
- Gen Y consumers want to enjoy the products they consume. Joyful consumption is a prerequisite to eco-innovativeness
- Biosphere values (protect nature for its own sake) increase eco-innovativeness
- If you’re less influenced by judgment of others, you tend to be eco-innovative
- On the other hand, ecological consumers tend to be susceptible to social norms
influences on behaviours and attitudes
- Attitude -> behaviour
- The right moderator variable can increase correlation between attitude and behaviour
- Attitude + moderator -> behaviour
- Ex. Strong moderators: perceived consumer effectiveness (you feel like the things you do make a difference); faith in others
4 dimensions of attitudes (internal locus of control)
- Green consumer (Ex. The more I buy “green” products, the more I help persuade companies to become friendlier to the environment)
- Activism (Ex. By making donations to pro-environmental groups, I can help make a positive influence on the state of the environment)
- Advocate (Ex. If willing, people can generally influence their friends’ transportation habits)
- Recycling (Ex. By recycling, I am doing my part to help the state of the environment)
effective advertising campaigns should be
- Presented by credible source
- Message should be specific
- Presented in vivid, personal manner
- More sensitive to LOSS than to GAIN
- Best medium of communication: peers, friends, neighbours
actions to enhance pro-environmental behaviour
- Increase individual’s concern for environment (already high)
- Increase their belief that they can make a difference (ie. Have personal control over environmental outcomes)
public policy to influence environmental behaviours
- Economic incentives
- Green taxes or environmental levies
- Develop regulations on eco-labelling
- Advertising moral obligations to others
- Create social and moral norms
- Ex. Focus on social approval and consumer’s perception of moral behaviour resulted in non-smoking as the social norm
stewards of the earth
act in sustainable ways to preserve the earth for our children, grandchildren, and those outside their immediate family circle
sustainability
- conscious design and the consideration of the impacts consumption choices make on the environment given finite resources; meeting present needs without compromising ability of future generations to meet their needs
- 3 legs of sustainability: Social, Economic, Environmental
resource education
brings current and potential sustainability problems to the forefront for discussion and research
ecological footprint vs. carbon footprint
- ecological footprint: impact on the land, air, and sea from consumption of goods and resources; the amount of land and sea required to support an individual’s lifestyle and consumption
- carbon footprint: measuring and reducing environmental impact of carbon emissions resulting from activities like using fuel to transport goods
ecosystem vs. habitat vs. organisms
- subsystem of ecology that emphasizes the relationship between organisms and their environment
- Organisms: living things
- Habitat: where organisms live
social environmental resources vs. physical environmental resources
- Social environmental resources: include societies, economic and political groups, and community organizations that unite in a common cause
- Physical environmental resources: include natural tangible (ie. Oceans, trees, soil) and less tangible (ie. Air, sound, and light) surroundings
global warming
caused when carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases collect in their air and trap solar heat reflected from the earth; over time, it can alter the earth’s temperature, sea levels, and storm systems
ecoconsciousness vs. conservation
- ecoconsciousness: thoughts and actions given to protecting and sustaining the environment
- conservation: the act or process of preserving and protecting natural environments from loss or depletion
problem recognition
when and individual or family perceives a significant difference between the lifestyle predicted and some desired or ideal lifestyle; this discrepancy must be large enough to push the individual to action
need recognition vs. opportunity recognition
- Need recognition: person realizes how much they need a certain product, service, or condition (ex. Gas prices surge and become unaffordable)
- Opportunity recognition: individual realizes that they may have limited or no access to a product, service, or condition (ex. Gas stations close for a day)
biodegradability
the capability of a material to decompose over time as a result of biological activity (ability to be broken down by microorganisms)
biological diversity
multidimensional concept encompassing the variety and variability among living organisms and the ecological complexities in which they occur
ethics vs. environmental ethics
- Ethics: systems of morals, principles, values, or good conduct
- Environmental ethics: used when deciding which species will be saved and which won’t
waste stream
all garbage/trash produced
2 significant factors in creating successful environmental/conservation programs
Ease and convenience
green building
relationship of a house and its occupants with the environment; involves eco-friendly design and processes
pollution
common to all environmental problems; general term referring to undesirable changes in physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of air, land, or water than can harm the health, activities, or survival of living organisms
source reduction
changing the design, manufacturing, purchasing, or use of materials and products, including packaging, to reduce the amount of toxicity before they become municipal solid waste
fossil fuels
remains of dead vegetation (ie. Coal, oil, natural gas)
municipal solid waste
- trash or garbage
- Increasing problem as population grows in cities
integrated waste management
a system where waste products are sorted, recycled items are reused, and the rest are cleanly burned in a furnace that produces steam to generate electricity -> only remaining ash goes to the landfill
positive ecology
incorporating several environmentally conscious practices into daily life management
