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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of a sustainability course that was designed to evoke measurable transformational changes in students’ preferences and in their roles as consumers, employees and citizens, via consciously addressing sustainability issues and involving a community partner. Design/methodology/approach The research was undertaken using mixed methods. Q-methodology helped create student groups with similar preferences for sustainable attitudes and behaviours before and after the course; the most important features of attitude changes and identify the phases of transformation were explored. In-depth interviews with each participant contributed to understanding and explaining the motivation for changing preferences and generated individual-level reflections about the perceived process of transformation. Findings Q-method highlighted how stakeholder roles were transformed from the three pre-factors to the three post-factors and for the whole group. Seven phases of transformational change are identified based on the reflective in-depth interviews from “no transformation” to “change agent behavior”. Practical implications Findings provide new perspectives for evaluating and embracing the transformational potential of sustainability courses. Originality/value Assessing the impacts of sustainability courses on students’ transformation via measuring their mindsets and behaviour preferences prior to and after a course is still an under-researched area, especially in relation to the Q-method. A further unique feature is how the influence of engaged community partner on students’ preferences is captured. The explored scope of individual responsibility goes beyond environmental awareness and addresses participants in various stakeholder roles simultaneously, by examining their priorities as consumers, employees and citizens.

Teaching with RRI methods makes a difference. This paper aims to evaluate the application of RRI tools in a CSR course. A course is considered effective when objectives, targeted skills, competences, and expected learning outcomes are communicated and reached. The focus of this research is understanding the impact of a specific international blocked course on the social and environmental sensitivity of students through the application of a mixed-method approach. Q-methodology was used to measure the preferences of students before and after the course regarding their individual behaviour and expectations towards companies. Interviews were conducted after the course to assess individual perceptions about the course and its teaching methods. Results suggest that the RRI approach in teaching is clearly appreciated by students, and its effectiveness is estimated as high. Changes in responsibility-related preference order reflect stronger and weaker impacts alike, helping identify effective RRI tools for teaching, as well as opportunities for further improvement.

A fenntartható fejlődés egyik célja a helyi közösségek megtartása, helyi boldogulásának biztosítása, amelyhez elengedhetetlen a káros következmények enyhítése vagy kiküszöbölése. Kutatásunk során többek között arra kerestük a választ, hogyan viszonyul a helyi lakosság a fenntartható fejlődéshez. Milyen preferenciákkal rendelkeznek a lakóhelyük megőrzésével, fejlesztésével kapcsolatban, látnak-e különös veszélyeket, fenyegetéseket? Milyen időtávon gondolkodnak és milyen megoldási technikákat látnak a problémákra? Mennyire tartanak szem előtt fenntarthatósági szempontokat? A válaszokat Q-módszerrel kerestük, melyhez 46 állítást fogalmaztunk meg nyolc témakörben: helyi kötődés; helyi együttműködés; cselekvési hajlandóság; gazdálkodás; időtáv; veszélyek; megoldások. A Q módszer a válaszadókat faktorokba rendezi, aszerint, mely állításokat preferálják jobban, melyeket kevésbé. Az eredmények rendkívül jól alkalmazhatóak a fenntarthatósági problémákhoz való viszonyulások megértéséhez.

Most research into consumer behaviour and branding focuses on the reasons why people choose certain products and brands. Research related to anti-consumption emphasises the opposite: its aim is to explore reasons behind the rejection of different products, brands, or even consumption as such. Relevance of this issue is not negligible: knowing what consumers do not want (and why) is at least as important as knowing what they do want (and why). Survey results, related to the five categories of brand avoidance – experience avoidance, identity avoidance, moral avoidance, deficitvalue avoidance and advertising – provide the input for the methodology of multidimensional scaling, aiming to identify sets of variables which are commonly responsible for brand avoidance. The of the research lies in its scope including all five categories of brand avoidance, which have not been tested in this comprehensive way in the fast fashion apparel industry before. The use of multidimensional scaling for analysing the aspects of brand avoidance is also unique. Its main added value is to provide an explainable picture of variables which “stand together” in shaping brand avoidance behaviour related to fast fashion. In addition, the clustering of respondents sheds light on the dominant features of those variables, in case of the brand avoidance behaviour of Gen Z. ------- A fogyasztoi magatartassal es markazassal kapcsolatos kutatasok tobbsege a termek- es markavalasztas okainak feltarasara fokuszal. A fogyasztasellenes magatartasra iranyulo kutatasok ennek ellenkezőjet hangulyozzak; celjuk a termek, a marka, illetve maga a fogyasztas elutasitasanak hattereben huzodo okok azonositasa. A tema relevanciaja nem elhanyagolhato: legalabb annyira fontos tudni, mit es miert nem valasztanak a fogyasztok, mint azt, mely termekeket es markakat preferaljak. A kutatas a Z generacio markaelkerulesi magatartasat vizsgalja az irodalomban azonositott ot markaelkerulesi kategoria – a tapasztalati, az identitashoz kothető, a moralis, a hiany ertekű es a reklammal kapcsolatos markaelkerules – menten, kerdőives felmeres alapjan. A kutatas harom vonatkozasban nyujt hozzaadott erteket: felfedi azokat a valtozocsoportokat, melyek egyuttesen befolyasoljak a markaelkerulesi magatartast; az eddigi kutatasokon tullepve valamennyi markaelkerulesi kategoriat megvizsgalja a fast fashion markak eseteben; valamint az adatokat a multidimenzionalis skalazas modszerevel elemzi, amelyet a markaelkerulesi szakirodalom eddig nem alkalmazott. A megkerdezettek klaszterekbe valo besorolasa ravilagit arra is, mely markaelkerulesi valtozok dominalnak klaszterenkent a Z generacio markaelkerulesi magatartasaban.

Az EcoVeloTour turisztikai projekt (Fostering enhanced ecotourism planning along the Eurovelo cycle route network in the Danube region, DTP-055-2.2) a kerékpáros turizmust és az ökoturizmust kívánja fejleszteni a Duna Régiót átszelő Eurovelo nemzetközi kerékpárútvonalakhoz kapcsolódóan. Célja az Eurovelo hálózatban rejlő szinergiák kiaknázása, az ökoturizmus kommunikációs lehetőségeinek fejlesztése és biztosítása a régióban, a kulturális és természeti értékek promotálása a kerékpáros turizmus segítségével, valamint a biodiverzitás, a tájképi elemek megőrzése, a levegőminőség javítása az ökoturizmus fejlesztési keretei között (EcoVeloTour). A projektterület kedvező adottságokkal rendelkezik a kerékpáros turizmus és az ökoturizmus fejlesztéséhez, a benne rejlő lehetőségek kiaknázására azonban eddig nem, vagy csak nagyon korlátozottan került sor. A kerékpárutak és a hozzájuk kapcsolódó infrastruktúra állapota, illetve szolgáltatási ellátottsága tekintetében egyelőre nem beszélhetünk kerékpáros vagy ökoturisztikai termékekről a Rákos-patak mentén. A stratégia készítésének idején tervezés alatt van az Eurovelo 14 útvonal Rákos-patak menti szakasza, illetve az EcoVeloTour projekt keretében több olyan fejlesztésre – kerékpáros okos pihenő kialakítása, kitáblázás tervének elkészítése, mobil applikáció létrehozása – kerül sor a térségben, melyek a projektterületet kiváló adottságain túl is vonzóvá tehetik a kerékpáros turisták és ökoturisták számára.

The EcoVeloTour tourism project (Fostering enhanced ecotourism planning along the EuroVelo cycle route network in the Danube region, DTP-055-2.2) aims to develop cycle tourism and ecotourism in connection with the EuroVelo international cycle routes across the Danube Region. The objective of the project is to harness the synergies of the EuroVelo network, to develop – and provide communication opportunities for – ecotourism in the region, to promote cultural and natural values through cycle tourism, to preserve biodiversity and landscape elements, and to improve air quality within the framework of ecotourism development. While the characteristics of the project area are favourable for the development of cycle tourism and ecotourism, its potential has not yet – or only to a limited extent – been harnessed. In terms of the condition and service provision of cycle paths and related infrastructure, there are currently no cycling or ecotourism products to speak of along the Rakos Stream. At the time of drafting this strategy (2021), the section of the EuroVelo 14 route that stretches along the Rakos Stream is under planning, and, within the framework of the EcoVeloTour project, a number of improvements – e.g. the creation of a smart cycling rest area, a signposting plan, and a mobile app – are underway in the area, which, in addition to the great assets of the project area, could make it attractive to cycling tourists and ecotourists.

Several pressing issues of the world today are strongly related to the failures of sustainability as well as corporate and individual responsibility. Obviously, we need a wide range of toolset to tackle those problems, including regulatory and voluntary measures, according to the nature and severity of the issue. The awareness of the necessity to incorporate sustainability and responsibility into the decision making also at the micro level became common. We can witness how specific companies committed themselves to manage their CSR activities at a strategic level and how they mobilise their core business expertise to tackle social and environmental problems – through their operation, volunteering, in-kind assistance, financial assistance, and further CSR tools. However, we can also witness several other companies obviously missing the point which areas and problems they really need to focus on when it comes to responsible business practices. In 2015, the United Nations set up 17 Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) which provide an applicable framework for companies to find the right direction how they can contribute best to solve the most pressing sustainability issues. By 2030, several companies committed themselves to end poverty, manage inequalities, handle the problem of climate change, etc. thus creating a better future for the earth and humanity. This chapter highlights perspectives and approaches of CSR and provide case studies upon how economic, social, and ecological problems are addressed by the corporate world. Those examples can serve either as role models or as lessons for companies to direct their interests to solving the most pressing issues and to properly develop their own CSR strategies.

Companies of different size and sector regularly publish sustainability reports in order to record and disseminate their activities aimed at contributing to sustainable development and to refl ect their corporate social responsibility. From the various existing suggestions for such reports, the principles and guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative are most widely used – at least among large companies. The very detailed guidelines and indicator system aim at supporting companies to provide relevant, balanced, comparable, accurate, timely, clear and reliable information on corporate activities and performance, while focusing on sustainability-context and stakeholder inclusiveness in their “non-financial” reporting. However, based on research into the content and quality of non-financial reporting, it is difficult to clearly conclude just how comparable and transparent the reports are, as well as to decide whether they truly refl ect the sustainability performance of the reporting companies. The paper provides a literature review and a qualitative analysis on the reporting practice of 37 large companies.

Sustainable energy policy and tackling climate-change-related issues require exploring energy consumption patterns. This paper proposes an integrative methodological approach called grounded survey for understanding behavioral factors behind household energy consumption. The study aims to overcome the restrictions of both quantitative and qualitative studies by combining participatory-systems-mapping (PSM) based focus group research with a quantitative survey. Focus groups were used to highlight common patterns, which helped formulate survey questions specifically into understudied areas of energy-related behavior. The survey helped validate these qualitatively grounded questions, while generating generalizable quantitative results based on a representative sample. Finally, a comparative assessment contrasted the comprehensive qualitative analysis with the survey findings. Two causal loop diagrams of common patterns are employed to illustrate the methodological model. This integrative approach deepens understanding of behavioral factors behind energy consumption and provides policy recommendations to strengthen the relationship between heating-related behavior and heating costs. The grounded survey method can be utilized in studying wicked or paradox problems in which the relationship between behavioral and technical factors are complex and possibilities for intervention are limited. The application of the model is suggested in areas where development can only be achieved through behavioral change.

Environmental education is assumed to have a significant influence on the environmental awareness, everyday lifestyles and consumer behavior of students. Several higher education institutions have recently recognized the importance of integrating sustainability issues into education to make this impact focused and explicit. This paper explores the relationship strength between environmental education and environmental knowledge, attitudes and reported actual behavior of university and high school students, providing a comparative questionnaire survey analysis which is unique in the literature. The results show a strong correlation between the intensity of environmental education and the environmental knowledge of students. This is partly due to the environmental education itself and partly due to the higher intrinsic motivation of committed students who voluntarily participate in environmental education, primarily at university level. The focus of the environmental education appears to be important in shaping attitudes about sustainable consumption. Addressing the issue of consumerism in environmental education clearly increases awareness of the need for consumption-related lifestyle changes. Based on Multidimensional Scaling methodology, the interdependence of several influencing variables is explored and illustrated graphically. Respondents are classified into five clusters – hedonist, techno-optimist, active environmentalist, familiar and careless – according to their environmental knowledge, attitudes, consumer behavior and everyday environmental awareness. Consistencies and inconsistencies in behavior are then identified in order to promote the creation of more effective educational instruments for supporting sustainable consumption and lifestyles.

This paper is designed to provide a contribution to the analysis of corporate environmental awareness, describing the concept along its five components: environmental knowledge, values, attitudes, revealed willingness to act and actual behaviour. Due to research experiences companies’ environmental behaviour is not always consistent in practice, which indicates “gaps” emerging between and within awareness components. A questionnaire-based analysis of 466 Hungarian manufacturing companies shows that environmental knowledge is a necessary but not sufficient precondition for adequate organisational behaviour; the impact of favourable attitudes and willingness to act is more essential and can override the impact of knowledge. However, “gaps” also exist between attitudes and actions, as well as within components of corporate environmental awareness which makes the resulting organisational behaviour different from expected.

The objective of the article is to highlight the role of environmental values in corporate pro-environmental behaviour. Among the five components of corporate environmental awareness, environmental values are of special importance, as is illustrated by the organisational culture of a Hungarian company showing consistent pro-environmental behaviour regarding all awareness components except values. Empirical research findings – arrived at with the help of Q-methodology – indicate the need for a stable and unambiguous integration of environmental values into organisational culture in order to achieve consistent pro-environmental behaviour at companies.

Due to the perceived and expected environmental impacts of climate change there is an urgent need to reduce Greenhouse Gasses (GHG) at each and every point of emission (see World Research Institute, 2010). The ongoing efforts of governments to establish and implement policies include investigating changes in consumer behaviour and attitudes towards sustainability. The often very high costs of measures makes economic analysis necessary in order to find out which technologically feasible abatement options are capable of realizing the largest emission reductions at least social cost (Csutora and Zilahy 1998, Urge-Vorsatz and Fule 1999, Creyts et al. 2007, Stern 2008). According to recent studies there is even space for “win-win” solutions as a number of options exist which can result in huge GHG reductions at a “negative cost”, meaning that those solutions are both beneficial from environmental and economic points of view. However, organisations often ask for external governmental support in order to implement those measures (Zilahy 2004) and individuals also regularly seem slow and inconsistent in transforming their positive environmental attitudes into environmentally aware consumption habits and reducing their levels of consumption (Rubik et al., 2009, Thogersen and Crompton, 2009, Nemcsicsne Zsoka, 2005).

Consumer policy approaches regarding green products and solutions can be differentiated by their main focus. “Green positioning” is basically targeted at environmentally aware consumers, while “efficiency-focused positioning” concentrates on the efficiency gain of the product or solution, targeting the whole society, regardless of consumers' environmental awareness. The paper argues that the scope and total environmental benefit can be increased if green products or solutions are promoted in different ways, not only as “green” but also based on other arguments (like cost-efficiency, return on investment, etc.). The paper suggests a model for improving the efficiency of greenhouse gas (GHG)-related consumer policy. Based on the marginal social cost curve and the marginal private cost curve, different (green, yellow, and red) zones of action are identified. GHG mitigation options chosen from those zones are then evaluated with the help of profiling method, addressing the barriers to implementation. Profiling may help design an implementation strategy for the selected options and make consumer policy more effective and acceptable for mass market. Case study results show three different ways of positioning of GHG-related consumer policy in Hungary from 2000 and give practical examples of profiling, based on the latest marginal social cost curve and the contemporary energy saving policy of the state regarding the residential sector.

The paper provides an overview of the state of corporate environmental management in Hungary compared to older EU and OECD states. It also explores the complex relationship between the implementation of environmental management practices and corporate environmental and business performance. Empirical evidence is taken from a comprehensive piece of research, carried out in OECD member countries, which explored motivation, decision-making procedures, and organisational structure of companies in relation to the design and implementation of environmental management tools and systems. Der Artikel bietet einen Uberblick uber die Situation des betrieblichen Umweltmanagements in Ungarn im Vergleich zu den alteren EU- und OECDLandern. Weiterhin werden die komplexen Beziehungen zwischen der Implementierung von Umweltmanagement-Praktiken und der betrieblichen Umwelt- und Geschaftsperformanz analysiert. Die empirische Evidenz basiert auf umfangreichen Forschungen in OECD-Mitgliedslandern, wobei insbesondere Motivation, Entscheidungsprozesse und Organisationsstruktur von Unternehmen im Zusammenhang mit Design und Implementation von Umweltmanagement-Instrumenten und -Systemen erforscht wurde.

A tanulmány a környezeti tudatosság komponensei közül a környezeti értékeknek a szervezeti magatartásban játszott szerepét vizsgálja. A szerző álláspontja szerint a vállalat által vallott és követett értékek leginkább a szervezeti kultúrában érhetők tetten. Az empirikus kutatás célja ebből következően, hogy megvizsgálja a környezetvédelem szervezeti kultúrába ágyazottságát egy olyan vállalat esetében, amelynek környezettudatos szervezeti magatartása a környezeti tudatosság többi komponensét – vagyis a vállalat ökológiai tudását, környezeti attitűdjeit, cselekvési hajlandóságát, és környezetvédelmi tevékenységét – tekintve egy korábbi kutatás eredményei alapján konzisztensnek bizonyult. A tanulmány arra kíván rávilágítani, hogy a környezeti értékek kitüntetett jelentőséggel bírnak mind a szervezeti tagok, mind az egész szervezet környezeti tudatosságát illetően, és a szervezeti magatartás ilyen értelemben csak akkor lehet konzisztens, ha a környezeti értékek stabilan és ellentmondásmentesen épülnek be a szervezet kultúrájába.

Living a happy and satisfied life while staying within ecological limits of Earth is a challenge humanity must face during this century. As spirituality impacts our lives in both material and non-material ways, we may reasonably suppose that spiritual beliefs also have an impact on how one thinks about environmental degradation, how likely individuals will behave in a pro-environmental way and how it impacts one’s ecological footprint. This article explores the links between a value-driven life and ecological impact, both theoretically and empirically. Our results suggest that traditional religious thinking, in-my-way spiritualism and green value-driven atheism are associated with an increased level of subjective wellbeing, while religious people also seem to be featured by a reduced level of ecological footprint. Materialism is supposed to be associated with a high level of ecological footprint and a low level of subjective wellbeing.