Search

The paper analyses the impact of regulatory policy on the development of sustainable flexible packaging in the food manufacturing industry. Although sustainable packaging is not new on the market, its development still poses various challenges for raw material producers, flexible packaging printers, food manufacturers, and other stakeholders. The study highlights the issues related to the development of sustainable flexible food packaging, the concept of sustainable packaging, and the regulatory policies of the European Union and Lithuania on sustainable flexible packaging. An empirical study was carried out to determine the impact of regulatory policy on the intention of food producers to develop and invest in sustainable flexible packaging. A qualitative research method - semi-structured interviews - was used. The results of the empirical study show that regulatory policy has an impact on the food industry's ambition to develop sustainable flexible packaging, although the effect can be twofold – it can either encourage compliance with the regulatory framework defined by the legislation or burden companies with excessive requirements. In this research, respondents also identified other components that affect the development of sustainable flexible packaging in the food manufacturing industry: consumers and other stakeholders, marketing. The level of environmental awareness was also highlighted as an important factor in the analysis of the empirical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of sustainable development has become a key concept according to which the European Union and other developed countries have been formulating the long term agricultural policy over the past few decades. Applying this theory into practice, the challenges which derive from the integrity of the objectives of sustainable development are being faced. The different achievements of various countries indicate that the effectiveness of sustainable development policy depends not only on how the various levels of institutions manage to reconcile environmental, social and economic objectives but also on whether the system of sustainability assessment immediately signalizes about the lack of implementation of the measures and creates the prerequisites for a timely policy review. This paper, by applying the different models of sustainable development, presents the principles for developing a system of sustainability assessment of agriculture with a focus on the identification of sustainability constraints arising in relation to insufficient reproduction of environmental, human and manmade capital. The system of sustainability assessment of agriculture in this paper is based on the interdependence of environmental, social and economic factors and aims to determine the causes of unsustainable development and allows to define the contribution and need for an intervention of the various levels of institutions in the implementation of sustainable agricultural development policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to disclose the concept of social indicators and its meaning for modern public administration practice and appropriate scientific research. The necessity to create a national system of social indicators in Lithuania is emphasized. Methodological problems of legitimating the thematic (dimensional) structure of social indicators is discussed as well. The article indicates a coherence of social indicators with fundamental methodological problems of society cognition: social measurement and evaluation, social diagnostics and social prognosis. The authors state a coherence of social indicators with social welfare, quality of life, sustainable development and New Public Management concepts. Paper is based on assumption, that the New Public Management is an instrument to assure sustainable development: it has to create prerequisites for quality of life. The problem of quality of life indicators is analysed, assuming a necessity to combine both objective and subjective indicators of quality of life in a particular research. It is indicated, that subjective indicators are a source of scientific informatikon, while subjective quality of life indicators are an independent object of social cognition. The paper presents a methodology for research of public opinion in a particular municipality, based on subjective quality of life indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the problems of brownfield in Lithuania. The paper overviews Lithuanian and foreign experience of integrating the introduced areas into the urban framework based on social, economic, ecological and cultural contextuality. The main problem, on Lithuanian scale, is the absence of an official definition of urban brownfield. The legal framework in Lithuania does not contain any provisions to be processed. The article is aimed at identifying potential threats to the areas in respect of criteria for urban brownfields, and, according to this review, at revealing possible uses of this land. One of the most effective ways of urban sustainable development is the conversion of former military, industrial and other land accepted as the legacy of the Soviet regime. The authors have established a causal relationship resulting in the emergence of the urban areas of wilderness and developed guidance on using them. The authors have analysed and evaluated the existing real estate developers and current trends towards opportunities for private and public partnership (PPP) in Lithuania. Although PPP is widespread in most of European countries, it is a rare phenomenon in Lithuania, and has no deep-rooted tradition of this kind of investment in urban infrastructure; however, evaluation is one of the most potential ways to revitalize abandoned urban territories. Based on practices of foreign countries, the authors have identified PPP as a priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive urban growth is often considered an uncoordinated process creating chaotic and fragmented suburban landscape. Such negative attitude is widespread among urban researchers and planners. But it contradicts with the very nature of the phenomenon - suburban sprawl is partly encouraged by people, who keep settling there due to a better quality of housing. This one and some other contradictions motivate more detailed morphological studies of the suburban fabric. This paper describes a research model, which is based on the three fundamental components of urban morphological research (form, resolution and time), and discusses the possibilities of its practical application for morphological examination of suburban settlements in Lithuania. Suggested research model is versatile and suitable for dealing with various morphological research problems of modem urban fabric, such as distinguishing different suburban tissues, analyzing their formation patterns, identifying their specific characteristics. As shown in the article, morphological knowledge can be integrated into the urban planning and design processes and be useful in guiding sustainable development of suburban settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes and summarizes the attributes of a sustainable city and discusses the issues of urban economic, social and environmental sustainability. The paper examines how changes in sustainability indicators can affect the choice of city population and lifestyle. A theoretical model of a sustainable city is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to show the importance of quality in the economics and social field and to highlight peculiarities, problems and interferences of education quality assurance at universities and colleges within the context of Bologna and Tuning methodology. Methodology: the paper is prepared using scientific, methodical literature and legal acts, documentation comparative analysis and case study methodology. The conclusions are based on the research as well as the experience of consultancy activities when developing quality management systems at Lithuanian universities and colleges. Particular attention is drawn to general and special competences and qualification requirements of bachelor's and master's degree. Quality of studies depends on such factors: management level of the activities of the universities, financing, up to date study programs, professional lecturers, training institutions, international integration of study programs, academic exchange of students and lecturers, evaluation of study quality, quality culture, clear system of motivation and others. These factors have to be assessed through the quality management system of universities or colleges and improvements need to be made. Most education institutions implementing quality management tools and principles confront with such major problems: complication of description of study quality concept and content; multiplicity of study quality indicators and their measurement and assessment delicacy; lack of skills using TQM concept, its principles, ISO 9001, EFQM, CEEMAN, EPAS, CAF management and accreditation models and quality methods; complication resolving university work into interdependent managed processes and process thinking formation; inertia and sometimes even resistance of a part of employees to fundamental changes. There are areas in higher education organizations that need specific attention in order to make impact to root causes instead of showing and tackling final consequences. The action plan needs to be developed by a top management to improve the system of assessment that could highlight relevant areas of improvement of main and supportive processes. Other proposals and insights for improvement of quality of high education were formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]