JIS Vol. 2 No 4 2016

ISSN 2367-8127 (CD-ROM) ISSN 2367-8151 (on-line)

Journal of Innovations and Sustainability Volume 2, Number 4, 2016

Innovations and Sustainability Academy 2016

Journal of Innovations and Sustainability Volume 2, Number 4, 2016 https://sites.google.com/site/journalinsust/

Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Vesela Radović, Ph.D. Managing Editor: Ekaterina Arabska, Ph.D. Editorial Board: Prof. Dipl. Eng. Venelin Terziev, D.Sc. (Ec.), D.Sc. (National security), Ph.D.; Prof. Evgeniy Stoyanov, Ph.D.; Assoc. Prof. Radostina Bakardjieva, Ph.D.

Š Innovations and Sustainability Academy 1, Lotos Str., Plovdiv 4006, Bulgaria

E-mail: insustacademy@gmail.com https://sites.google.com/site/insustacademy/

2016 ISSN 2367-8127 (CD-ROM) ISSN 2367-8151 (on-line)

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

Volume 2 Number 4 2016

Contents Foreword ........................................................................................................ 5

Development of Active Social Policies in Bulgaria Venelin Terziev Angel Kanchev University of Ruse - Bulgaria Vasil Levski National Military University – Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria Stefan Stanchev Trakia University - Stara Zagora, Bulgaria ........................................................ 9

Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility: Linking Goals to Standards Radostina Bakardjieva Economics Research Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences ...................... 23

Incommensurate Environmental Risks and the Regulator’s Dilemma in the Governance of Emergency Situation Vesela Radovic Institute for Multidisciplinary Research, Belgrade University, Serbia .............. 37

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Volume 2 Number 4 2016

Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

Foreword The papers presented in this issue of the Journal of Innovations and Sustainability were successfully presented and discussed at the First International Scientific Conference “Sustainability Challenges In Modern Organizations: Knowledge & Innovation in Management & Operation” organized by Innovations and Sustainability Academy on December 12, 2015 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

These papers were included in the conference program into the panel “Society and sustainable development” focusing on the peculiar questions of innovation and sustainability regarding development of active social policies, corporate social responsibility advantages and sustainable development goals implementation, tackling environmental risks and emergency management.

The specific examples of labor market development, design and implementation of programs and measures provide implications and recommendations to future development through learnt lessons and evaluated good practices.

Corporate social responsibility is analyzed in terms of sustainable development of companies as its core and a prerequisite, as well as a strategic issue and instruments of raising competitiveness.

Emergency management is an open discussion question in contemporary dynamic global situation concerning environmental risks in particular. The analyses of current practices and experience provide insights into strengthening the response and effective solutions on different levels.

Thus, the papers consider different aspects of sustainable development and are a reasonable part of the conference topics finding also their deserved place in the current issue of the Journal of Innovations and Sustainability and opening fields of new research in the above-mentioned directions of particular importance for future sustainable development.

Ekaterina Arabska Innovations and Sustainability Academy

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

SOCIAL SCIENCES

Volume 2, Number 4, 2016

ISSN 2367-8127 (CD-ROM) ISSN 2367-8151 (on-line)

Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

Volume 2 Number 4 2016

Development of Active Social Policies in Bulgaria Venelin Terziev1 Angel Kanchev University of Ruse - Bulgaria Vasil Levski National Military University – Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

Stefan Stanchev Trakia University - Stara Zagora, Bulgaria Abstract The paper discusses the development of social policies in the Republic of Bulgaria. Employment policies and measures are examined in conection to the national governmental policies and in conditions of some major changes in economic and social life in the transition to a market economy and joining the EU. Active social policy is characterized in its different aspects, as well as different approaches on employment and unemployment regarding labor force and in comparison to the passive policies. The lessons learnt during preparation, organization and implementation of the programs and measures of labor market policy are a valuable experience on which basis conclusions are made about the functioning of labor market and the link to social and economic development, as well as priorities of future development are set.

Key words: labor market, social policy, employment, unemployment, labor force.

INTRODUCTION The problems of modern labor market are subject to increasing interest in the field of research, policy discussions and management practice. They become especially topical in the years of transition and the membership of Bulgaria in the European

1

Corresponding author:

Prof. Dipl. Eng. Venelin Terziev, D.Sc. (Economics), D.Sc. (National security), Ph.D. E-mail: terziev@skmat.com

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Union, as well as the emerging new challenges facing Bulgaria in the new demographic, economic and social conditions.

The topical interest of the studied subject for the impact of various policies, programs and measures on the national labor market is conditioned by the fact that in recent years the implementation of specific programs and measures plays an increasing role in Bulgaria and is used as a main tool for the impact the labor market, both at regional and national level.

An important feature of the contemporary national projects of priority is their clear focus on the social field, i.e. on the person. The problems associated with investment in the person and improving the quality of life have never been paid so much attention before. The innovative approach to the habitual social sphere is the main difference of contemporary social, compared to all previously conducted projects at a national level. The effectiveness of the implementation of the social policy at any level (national, regional, corporate), dependents unconditionally on the financial capacity of those who planned it and implemented it (the state, municipality, company). The financing of a certain field depends directly on the solution of the problem related to the production development. It is namely this question that unveils the problems of formation of the revenue of the budgets, the deficit of finance and money, including for the implementation of the social policy as well. In case of lack of funds we cannot speak neither of the development of education, culture, health, nor of labor market and social protection of the population. All problems within the social sphere arise primarily due to lack of funds and are often associated with economic problems and errors in the formation of the expenditure of the budgets. By the way, the social policy itself and its basis - the socio-labor sphere, as evidenced by the practice, have a strong impact on the economic growth, financial flows and budgetary policy.

CHARACTERIZATION OF SOCIAL POLICY When considering the social policy in a broader context, we can present some conventional and alternative modes of regulation of social relations in the field of labor:  Regulation of social relations and issues concerning recruitment, release and immediate use of the labor of the working population;  Regulation of social relations with regard to the nature and conditions of work and the possibilities of changing employment;  Regulation of working time and leisure in terms of distribution and utilization between the different generations within the individual astronomical periods (day, 10 |

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week, year, human life). In all these directions, the occurrence of social problems is possible. These problems could be overcome or limited by the social policy, through its own means or by other scientific means (organizational, technical, sociological).

The problems regarding recruitment, release and immediate use of labor, that practically could be named as problems of employment and unemployment, shall be considered comprehensively and at several levels. Their macroeconomic aspect requires to strike a balance between demand and supply of labor in social scale, and the solution of the problem on implementation between the growth rates of unemployment and the rate of increase or decrease of inflation, to take into consideration the impact of the technical and technological upgrade as well as the restructuring of the economy on the number and structure of the unemployed. The classical prerequisite of market economy stands at the root of the problems of employment in macro-scale: the free and independent actions of producers in terms of production and investment.

The problems of employment and unemployment acquire new aspects in the context of globalization of the modern economy. In previous periods, the national economies could regulate the labor market through salaries and sanctioning of certain conditions of employment and dismissal, but today these regulators are insufficiently effective. The export of capital and production in countries where the labor force is cheaper and social costs lower, does not allow the use of the well-known mechanisms of regulation of labor and labor relations. Retraining and mobility, as well as higher education are not in any case the way out of unemployment in an open national economy. The competition among the active population is increasing and goes beyond the national borders and the national laws prove to be inappropriate to regulate the labor mobility.

Policies on employment and unemployment follow different approaches in different countries. One of the approaches is brought primarily to the impact on the demand for labor force. The other approach is directed to the supply of labor force. In both cases, the practical solutions are directly or indirectly associated with the inflation growth.

The economic activity, the employment of the population with productive labor, is the most important factor for economic growth and success of the integration processes.

In the period of the transition to a market economy and joining to the EU, the increase in employment can contribute to the overcoming of the social insecurity and poverty and it can improve the social cohesion in society. As a factor for economic growth at this stage, employment is important for Bulgaria in terms of its quality structures,

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sectoral and branch redistribution, mobility and price. Regarding its rate and structure, the employment is a result of the economic development of the radical changes occurred in the structure of ownership and production. In large part, however, it is a result of the ongoing economic, social and political reforms. On the basis of the presented development processes and the pursued policies, we could generalize and make a number of conclusions for the economic activity, employment and unemployment.

Traditional active measures for maintenance of employment and limitation or transformation of unemployment are intended as follows: first, to stimulate employers to open new jobs or to keep the existing ones and secondly, to stimulate the activity of employees in their adaptation to the requirements of the economy through professional and territorial mobility and qualification upgrading. The group of these measures also includes the mediation between employers and employees through labor offices, subsidies to stimulate employment in the private sector (for opening of additional jobs), reduction of taxation, provision of credits under preferential conditions, creation of jobs in the public sector for the public benefit, subsidies for the unemployed opening their own business, training and retraining of unemployed and employed, acquiring of new qualification and qualification upgrading within organizations, promoting territorial mobility of employees by covering the cost of the travelling and the settlement in a new location and more.

These general incentives characterizing the active state policy may not have the required effect in Bulgaria, unless preceded or accompanied by a comprehensive structural reform of the economy, privatization of state enterprises and liquidation of entire losing industries in the economy. These measures contribute to the prevention of the deepening of the fragmentation process of the labor society.

The policies on employment and unemployment can be divided into active and passive. The active policies are those whose measures are aimed at employers and employees,

either

to

maintain

employment

or

for

the

restructuring

and

transformation of unemployment. The active policies in the field of labor and employment in particular aim at stimulating the labor market, creating conditions for bigger chances for people to fall in the labor sphere. The passive policies are those aimed at neutralizing the negative effects of job losses. They are directed to the effects of job losses and are expressed in ensuring the material welfare of the unemployed and their families.

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EMPLOYMENT POLICIES AND MEASURES The general measures of the so called passive policy on unemployment and employment include: providing insurance and support to unemployed, systems for flexible or early retirement, special schemes for retirement of long-term unemployed, annual leave extension, reduction of the daily or weekly working time, creation of conditions and organization for working part-time, prolongation of maternity leave, including the provision of special benefits for mothers who entirely devote themselves to taking care of their children, limiting the excess work, extending the right to leave granted for education and training, etc.

All these measures are (directly or indirectly) focused on reducing the supply of labor and relieving the tension in the labor market. Although relating to the passive labor policy, most of them aim at achieving one additional effect, namely related to the redistribution of labor in society, also including the reallocation of jobs to those who have jobs and those who do not, redistribution of working hours in the same direction and thus redistribution of income.

The privilege of having a full-day, week-round and year-round job at a good price of the labor must be generally typical of a wider circle of the employable population. In societies with high labor productivity and normal economic growth such a policy is completely possible without detriment to the interests of employers and employees.

Passive policy measures may prevent the fragmentation and the segmentation of the labor market and the employable population. The social effect of the redistribution of labor would have a significant impact.

Alternative policies on employment and against unemployment appear as a result of the understanding that comprehensive state programs, with their universal character, are not effective in case of mass unemployment and do not comply with the interests, the attitudes and the culture of certain groups of the population.

Although they reflect the selective approach in the labor policy, it would be wrong to believe that they are intended only for the vulnerable groups of the population. In their essence, alternative policies reject traditional employment programs and at the same time in certain cases they allow state financial support for their realization.

An alternative economy is one that consciously seeks new content, objectives and organizational forms of the human activity. The new content of the alternative economy is sought in areas that are not particularly attractive for investment of private capital, such as ecology (including the production of environmentally friendly products, new energy technologies), joint production or business with countries of

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the Third World, recovery of handicrafts and industries and others. At the same time alternative employment can be achieved in the field of a number of socio-political projects, such as integration of emigrants in the economic and social life, fight with drug addiction, etc.

The new features in the organizational forms of an alternative economy include: collaboration liberated from hierarchy, self-management and elimination of the opposition of ownership of capital and ownership of workforce and also more or less connection of working life with the life of the community outside the world of work.

Alternative employment can be regarded as a more specific way of organizing the labor of people who are not always unemployed or threatened by unemployment and still less belong to a risk group, but want to realise themselves in a new way in the process of labor: to be autonomous, to combine work with what is called "hobby" in ordinary life, not to follow the traditional forms of work organization and management. This type of alternative employment does not solve the problems of discriminated groups in labor. Rather, it is a way to meet the more specific needs of the people with high demands on labor and quality of life. The disadvantage of this type of employment is "self-exploatation" as a secondary effect of the increased personal and collective initiative. The weak point of this type of employment is that it is primarily financed by personal funds. Such type of economy and employment is mostly supported by soft loans.

Mass unemployment and the needed application of selective approaches in employment policy necessitated the implementation of employment, primarily involving risk groups. It has the following main applications: • equality in labor relations - policy should provide a basis for equitable treatment of all people capable of working and willing to work; • promotion of their participation in the labor market; • use of flexible forms of employment; • promotion of their own entrepreneurial activity; • encouraging education and training of women; • programs promoting youth employment and prevention programs against youth unemployment; • programs for long-term unemployed; • promotion and financial support of groups for self-help; • promotion of work for the public benefit.

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The active measures of a more general nature, affecting all risk groups, include: • special subsidies to private employers to create jobs for young people, disabled, long-term unemployed; • promotion of alternative groupings for the production of goods and services that are not produced by mass production; • receipt of unemployment benefits in the form of a capital for starting own business; • penalties to the employers who refuse employment to people belonging to risk groups; • improvement of the economic and social infrastructure of some territories in order to increase the territorial mobility, especially in areas with high concentration of ethnic groups; • financial support of groups for mutual self-help and for work in the public benefit.

The activities of the employment policy give priority to: • development and improvement of laws and regulations; • decentralization and regionalization; • increase in employment; • decline in the number of unemployed; • reduction of the duration of the stay of unemployed in the labor market; • socioeconomic integration of risk groups; • development of vocational training of employed and unemployed persons (continuing education, training for acquiring a new qualification, qualification upgrading, retraining of employed and unemployed persons); • strengthening the capacity of the structures; • development of entrepreneurship; • development of social partnership in vertical and horizontal direction not only with the traditional social partners (employers, trade unions), but also with nongovernmental organizations working in the field of employment and vocational training; • development and improvement of the database.

As an element of the social protection system in case of unemployment, passive measures against unemployment include: • cash unemployment compensations; • cash unemployment benefits; • recognition of professional experience and payment of contributions for pension and

health

insurance

for

unemployed

persons

receiving

unemployment

compensations.

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A wide range of active measures and programs regulated by the Protection against unemployment and employment promotion act (in effect until 31.12.2001) were implemented in the country and covered the following areas: • to reduce unemployment and promote employment; • to facilitate the business launch and development; • for unemployed youths; • for a transition from passive to active measures; • to promote the development of a labor market open to everybody; • to develop opportunities for creation of new jobs; • to facilitate the transition from school to work; • to support adaptability in enterprises; • participation in the development of business infrastructure, etc.

The events and policy instruments affecting the labor market most often include: 1. Information and consultation of young people and adults on all matters relating to the choice and change of a profession, opportunities for training and finding employment.

2. Assistance in finding employment and stimulation of the acceptance of a job through financial aid for employers and employees.

3. Stimulation of professional training through events for continuing education, qualification upgrading, retraining and more.

These events are mainly aimed at regional and especially at local labor markets and/or professionally specialized labor markets and aim to overcome the imbalance formed between them regarding labor supply and demand.

1. Events for opening and maintenance of jobs. Here one can include incentives to employers of seasonal industries (construction, etc.), to ones in temporary financial or production difficulties, the use of reduced working hours or other forms of flexible, non-traditional employment.

2. Payment of unemployment compensations, aid for long-term unemployed and for other people not receiving compensations.

THE CASE OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA The government policy on the employment of unemployed is divided into two groups of measures and programs - active and passive. The first one is used to stimulate employment and the acquiring of qualification and the second one is related to the financial and informational support of unemployed (benefits, labor offices, etc.).

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The active employment policy of the government and its specialized body (in Bulgaria it is the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, respectively, the National Employment Service at it and later - the Employment Agency) provides a number of measures and programs to promote employment of the population and the employment of workforce by employers, job creation and others - both for employed and unemployed. In recent years measures and programs for employment, vocational training and retraining have mostly been carried out at the expense of the State budget.

Upon the formation of the staff, the policies and programs of the government in the field of employment and unemployment are of interest to organizations in several ways: 1. Opportunity to hire relatively cheap workforce in conditions of high unemployment (via labor offices) – people who are mostly high or well-qualified, motivated to work.

2. Opportunity to take advantage of a number of measures and programs aimed at supporting the hiring of certain categories of unemployed (young people without professional experience but with professional training, people, transferred to a more appropriate job (for reasons of health), long-term unemployed, etc.) in which the majority of the funds for salaries are at the expense of the above-mentioned source, which means it is much cheaper to hire certain categories of workforce.

3. To use the offered tax and interest reliefs in hiring and/or increasing employment in the organization, which is actually increasing its efficiency, lowering the costs, etc.

4. To prepare, train or retrain unemployed or threatened by unemployment at the expense of external sources (the sources already mentioned) – people who will be hired by the organisation after that.

The measures and programs from which organizations can benefit are specific and are determined by the level of unemployment and the degree of imbalance of the various private labor markets. Most often these include: 1. Stimulation of the different categories of unemployed for work and of employers for their employment; 2. Encouraging employers to create jobs and increase employment; 3. Creation of temporary employment (the so-called subsidized employment) for certain groups of unemployed by involving them in various programs such as the Temporary employment program, the Youth employment program, programs for alternative employment, the program “From Social Assistance to Employment”, training programs and more.

The active employment policy includes a number of measures and opportunities for employment and preparation for it, from which some groups of unemployed can

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benefit. Basically these are unemployed, for whom it is more difficult to find work, because they are not sufficiently competitive, they are not preferred by employers for one or other reason, but in practice this leads to their discrimination in the labor market. These are young people without professional experience; people who are not able to work or more precisely, persons with reduced ability to work; disabled and pensioners of working age, long-term unemployed without professional training and others (women, ethnic groups, young people, adults).

By means of this set of measures and programs, the government (through its specialized organ – the Employment Agency and local directorates - labor offices), with the cooperation of social partners (organisations of trade unions and employers) and public funds (mainly from the specialized fund "Professional qualification and unemployment", the State budget or international programs and funds) stimulates employers to hire different groups of unemployed, to create jobs for them, even temporary, but with a guaranteed income in the form of wages, social insurance and with the provision of opportunity for them to demonstrate their professional, labor and personal qualities, to show up in the world of work.

Young professionals and young qualified workers, the ones who have just graduated from the relevant schools, do not have work experience, but when registered in labor offices, they can be employed by companies and other organizations and receive the relevant employment benefits, obtain social insurance and gain work experience and general experience. For this purpose employers are encouraged to hire (outside the vacancies announced by them) young professionals and young skilled workers suitable for them and directed by labor offices. In this way employers actually obtain workforce at a very low price, they can use the enthusiasm and the desire for work of the most prepared and the youngest part of the economically active population of the country, to form and prepare them according to its policy on human resources, to select the workforce most appropriate to them. Young people without work experience, becoming a more significant proportion of the unemployed, are less likely to find a job precisely because of their inexperience and lack of labor qualification.

Now they get a chance to work, to prove themselves in it and on this basis to be employed, to have their employment contract continued and last, but not least - to receive higher income earned through labor, to gain some professional experience.

For this purpose contracts are concluded: one between the labor office and the organization that employs such young people, and another - between the unemployed youths directed by the labor office and the employers. The first contract ensures the employment of young people and the transfer of sums from the State budget

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(respectively other public funds) for them to companies and organizations, employing young professionals or skilled young workers under a temporary contract. The second contract, which is concluded between the employer and the employed young person, determines the period of employment, the remuneration amount and others. It is used by the employers to guarantee their commitment to the first contract and to pay the employed youths wages amounting to no less than the minimum wage established for the country.

Persons with reduced ability to work, registered as unemployed at labor offices and seeking employment and receiving income from work, may also use the incentives aimed at employers for their hiring. The existing measures in favor of this group of unemployed are based on the special protection of persons with disabilities provided in the Labor Code. For each person with disabilities, employed under this norm and directed by labor offices, the employer receives a sum amounting to the minimum salary and the related to it other complementary payments under the Labor Code and the amounts covering the provision for all insurance risks for the period, during which the person is employed and in accordance with the established terms in the Employment Promotion Act. In this way employers are in practice encouraged to hire, to increase the number of jobs for people transferred to a more appropriate job (for reasons of health), to maintain relatively cheap workforce.

Long-term unemployed (those are persons registered as unemployed for 12 months and more and not having found a proper job for that period) can immediately benefit from the Temporary employment program (now program “From Social Assistance to Employment”) and its actual implementation in municipalities and labor offices, i.e. from its focus on regional labor markets and the unemployed in the most difficult financial and social situation.

For example, in the long term the Temporary employment program (started in the early 90s) aimed to reduce unemployment "by creating additional jobs in socially useful activities in order to provide temporary employment of long-term unemployed".

The immediate objectives of each of the specific programs developed in the municipalities for temporary employment were: • Creation of additional jobs in the intrinsic municipal activities such as utilities, development and improvement of the settlement, maintenance and protection of municipal property, environmental protection, maintenance and conservation of historical monuments and sites of tourist destinations, social assistance and others.

• Providing employment for a period of up to five months for unemployed persons without profession and with low education, who have been registered in labor offices

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as job seekers for a period of 12 months and more. The unemployed persons included in this program are hired under fixed-term contracts for a maximum of five months and are provided with a monthly salary amounting to at least the minimum wage.

Temporary employment programs provide other options for the unemployed included in them for a certain period of time (not longer than 5 months). After this period, if the unemployed finds a job under a fixed-term contract for at least a few months (together with the term under the program reaching 9 months), they acquire again the right to receive unemployment benefits if they become unemployed and if they are duly registered in the labor office by residence. The term and the amount of the new compensation are settled again - depending on the age and the work experience at the time of the registration and the average monthly gross salary received in the last nine months of work in an employment relationship. The opportunities offered by the program were or could be mostly beneficial for unemployed without professional training and with low education, unemployed without the right to receive cash benefits and unemployment benefits, unemployed from the Roma population, young people without qualifications, profession and/or work experience and other people without much chances to find a suitable job or to be employed by the relevant employers.

Employees and employers from organizations with a stay of more than 30 days could benefit from the program. In this way financial support was provided to employers so that they refrained from dismissals due to the stay, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to employees so that they could receive at least the minimum wage for the duration of their stay.

Persons already dismissed and the ones being dismissed from production due to the restructuring and partial liquidation of industries and registering as unemployed in the relevant labor offices could participate in various programs for alternative employment. They provided for the creation of new industries and businesses, providing employment, jobs to the dismissed from various sectors (coal mining, ore mining etc.), as well as professional preparation of these persons for the establishing or expanding of business and other activities. The fairly widely used Program for literacy training, training and employment was created above all to gradually solve the problem of acute socioeconomic importance, connected with the significant unemployment among the Roma population.

Young people up to 30 years, among whom unemployment is generally high and who form a substantial proportion of the unemployed, may be included in various programs suitable for them. For example, launched in the country in the mid-90s,

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the Youth employment program, similar to those functioning in a number of countries, set as its general objective "economic and social integration of young people in society." The more specific objectives were improving the workforce quality; providing training and retraining adequate to the offered jobs; promotion of youth entrepreneurship; execution of active labor mediation. Some specific programs such as "Career start", computer and language training, internships and more were also created later.

Another group of active policy measures was aimed to directly stimulate employers to increase employment, open new jobs, hire unemployed registered in labor offices, refrain from layoffs, keep the existing jobs. This is especially true during periods of mass dismissals (restructuring, financial and economic crises).

The law in effect provides encouragement, stimulation of employers, support from the National Employment Service, municipal administrations and others for the implementation of programs and measures for employment of unemployed such as: university graduates up to 28 years of age or people at the age of up to 24, with secondary or lower education, who have no work experience; persons with reduced ability to work and orphans; people with permanently reduced ability to work in organizations with fewer than 50 employees, with 50 or more employees; long-term unemployed; unemployed who are hired part-time and others. For every unemployed registered in labor offices, hired for a certain period of time (3 to 24 months for different groups), the employers receive, under a contract with the labor office, at the expense of the State budget, sums amounting to the minimum wage established for the country and the contributions due on it for insurance (social, health and unemployment) for the period during which the person is employed.

The law also provides incentives to employers - sole proprietors to hire their first 5 workers from labor offices under an employment contract for a period of 24 months, as for this purpose 12 monthly contributions are reimbursed to them.

Many of the programs are for vocational training, career guidance and job placement of the relevant groups of unemployed. Another large group of programs is focused on regional markets and the organization of work and working hours.

CONCLUSION The impact of the state policy on economic and social development in a market economy is different and is principally determined by the type of the market economy, its state and the employment of the population. In a social market economy, with high unemployment and inflation, the state intervention in economic development

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and in particular in employment is more significant. The intervention mainly affects the promotion of employment or the limitation of the dismissal of certain categories of the population, the determination of the minimum wage and some supplements to it, working conditions, wage fund, help for unemployed to return to work and more.

The goals and tasks defined in the examined programs correspond to the social need of the implemented policies on unemployment and employment, which are subject of intense discussion in society. At the same time, they are measurable and objective with a view to the theoretical foundation gained in recent years in the field of economic theory, related to the labor market, as well as the accumulated statistics.

There is a need to systematize, propose and implement economic approaches and methods which to adequately assess the effects of the impact of the policies, programs and measures implemented on the labor market where they would be useful.

REFERENCES Terziev V. Impact of active social policies and programs in the period of active economic transformations in Bulgaria. “East West” Association for Advances Studies and Higher Education GmbH, Vienna, 2015.

Terziev V., Dimitrova S. Social programming in the context of stimulating social activity and regulation of social development through active policies. “East West” Association for Advances Studies and Higher Education GmbH, Vienna, 2015.

Terziev, V. (2015). Methodological approach to research and evaluate main states and transitions on labor market. Problemay sovremennoy ekonomiki №24, pp. 22-48.

Terziev, V. (2015). Social policy and labor market development in Bulgarian transition period. Ekonomicheskie nauki. Prioritetnaye nauchnaye napravleniya: ot teorii k praktike, pp. 139-154.

Terziev,

V.

Predizvikatelstva pred sotsialnoto programirane v konteksta na

nasarchavaneto na sotsialnata aktivnost i reguliraneto na sotsialnoto razvitie chrez aktivni politiki, Primaks – Ruse, Bulgaria, 2015.

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

Volume 2 Number 4 2016

Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility: Linking Goals to Standards Radostina Bakardjieva1 Economics Research Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Abstract Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the core of sustainable development of companies. On one hand, the corporate social responsibility of companies is a prerequisite for sustainable business, on the other - sustainable development sets specific requirements for the development of businesses in the context of increasing requirements to the degree of quality and reliability of financial information. In recent years, sustainable development has become a strategic issue for companies and this trend applies to Bulgarian companies too. Development of non-financial reporting is a very dynamic process, whose peak is the establishment of an integrated system of accountability. Current paper makes analyses of advantages of CSR linking it to the implementation of sustainable development goals through the integrated reporting following the requirements of the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

Key words: corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainable development, global reporting initiative (GRI).

INTRODUCTION On 25 September, 2015 a set of goals was adopted to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda2. The goala have 169 specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years. The UN General Assembly resolution “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable 1

Corresponding author:

Assoc. Prof. Radostina Bakardjieva, Ph.D. Economics Research Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences; 3, Aksakov, Str.; Sofia, Bulgaria E-mail: r.bakardjieva@gmail.com 2

17 goals to transform our world: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-

development-goals/.

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Development”3 is “a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity”. The goals are considered in terms of people, planet, prosperity, peace andpartnership. In order the goals to be reached governments, private sector, civil society and citizens should be actively involved. All this implies the question of responsibility on different levels.

There are many different views, definitions and conceptual approaches to the identification of corporate social responsibility (Zahariev, 2014). The first group opinions approaches the concept applying the principles of sustainable development, which respects the balance between economic growth, social development and environmental protection. The second focuses on the strategic importance of the phenomenon, as it connects with the behavior of the company in the social and the business environment through which she gained competitive advantages. The third examines CSR as a standard of performance that defines ways of interaction and communication of the company with separate groups of subjects.

CSR is an element of the European straregy for sustainable development4. Very often the

economic

literature

considers

sustainable

development

and

corporate

responsibity as both part of the same coin. The reason is that both sustainable development and corporate social responsibility predispose that the business should follow not only economic but also social and ecological goals in its development.

Corporate social responsibility refers to companies „voluntarily going beyond what the law requires to achieve social and environmental objectives during the course of their daily business activities“5. It covers a range of areas: Europe 2020 (especially new skills and jobs, youth, local development); бusiness and human rights; CSR reporting and socially responsible public procurement. The European Commission encourages companies to apply fair employment practices that respect human rights.

Being integrated in the organizations at all the levels and expressed by their inner and outer interactions and relations, it considers the expectations of all the parties and is in correspondence to the legislation concerning social and ecological issues and relevant international norms in the implementation of socially responsible initiatives (Nikolova and Yordanova, 2014).

3

Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015 [without reference to a Main

Committee (A/70/L.1)] 70/1. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E/.

4

Europe 2020: http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/index_en.htm/.

5

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the EU:

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=331&langId=en/.

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In last few decades CSR has been developing form a narrow and often marginalized notion into a complex and multilateral concept (Cochran, 2007). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) are determined as key tasks which could lead to development of a number of international policies encouraging CSR and discouraging CSI (Windsor, 2013).

The concept of sustainable development gives a new way of thinking and management of the human impacts – creating more durable positive results for bigger benefits for human societies – common wellbeing / common capital (economic, human, social and ecological) do not decrease in time, i.e. availability and quality of resources in long term (Zahariev and Arabska, 2015).

THE BUSINESS MODEL OF CSR AND ITS SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS CSR is a policy that organizations voluntarily accept and implement in their business strategies in a way showing their long-term engagement in sustainable development of their business, society and environment (Pop et al., 2011). CSR is accepted as an activity which is not of a single performance but a sustainable process.

The question of Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is of an extreme importance because it gives a terminological clearness and introduces the basic positions and limitations from the point of view of the organizations and their roles in the balancing of the three pillars of sustainable development – economic growth, social development and environmental protection (Zahariev, 2013, 232). Corporate social responsibility, also called corporate conscience, citizenship, social performance, sustainable responsible business, is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated in a business model. CSR policy functions as a built-in mechanism of self-regulation by which the business controls and provides its active compliance to the law, ethical standards and international norms (Pop et al., 2011).

Social responsibility is an element of the corporate culture considering the flexibility and security (flexicurity) and management of multiformity in a number of spheres and business practices.

According to the Bulgarian network for CSR6 main spheres of CSR are the following:  Society  Improvement of social environment  PR activities with social effect  Volunteering 6

Bulgarian network for CSR: http://www.csr.bg/.

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 Support and social integration of orphans, children and adults institutions  Protection of cultural and historical heritage  Quality and safety of produce  Donations  Charity  Environment  Pollution control  Environmental protection and recreation  Preservation of natural resources  Recycling  Energy effectiveness  Management of impacts on environment and natural resources  Human capital and labor conditions  Health and safe labor conditions  Training and development of staff  Supporting career development  Volunteer programs for employees  Programs for objective and fair payments  Satisfaction and engagement of employees  Knowledge and education  Scholarships  Supporting school activities  Internships  Youth activities encouragement Discussing the concept as a voluntary integration of social and ecological concerns in the activities and interactions of the organizations, the CSR could be considered as based on three fundamental concepts: voluntary nature of initiatives, consciousness and attention on the relations to markets and hence consumers, and inclusion of all stakeholders (Viola et al., 2013). This means that social responsible business is that paying more attention to environment, employment and consumers (Arabska and Terziev, 2016). The concept is developing into a successful business strategy for sustainable development supporting organizations in the raise of their influence on the market and also in establishing a positive public image (Nikolova et al., 2014; Bakardjieva, 2009).

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Common drivers of corporate social responsibility are presented with there definitions (Table 1) according to an investigation in mining industry (Govindan et al., 2014).

Table 1. Common drivers of corporate social responsibility (According to Govindan et al., 2014 cited by Zahariev and Arabska, 2015) Societal drivers

Drives the social engagement activitiesand avoidance of anti-social activitieswithin the organization to improve thesocietal support and benefits

Supply chain drivers

To improve the ethical supply chainefficiency, the pressures from supplychain operations and partners are calledas supply chain drivers and these driversresult in the integration of CSR in SCwhich became a popular debate in recentyears.

Environmental

These drivers mainly concern thedevelopment and security of

drivers

theenvironment in such activities as greenmanufacturing, and optimal

resourceallocation

which

results

in

sound

greenmanagement.

Financial drivers

It is a kind of profit-based strategy,where the organization is pressuredto increase its profit through CSR activitieswhich directly impacts its economic functions.

Voluntary drivers

These drivers are a part of internal driverswhich mainly focus on the

standard

of

theorganization

to

improve

its

brand

recognitionbeyond the boundary and to satisfy andmaintain good relations with the internalstakeholders through the rise in long standingmarket capacity of the organization.

Mandatory drivers

Mandatory drivers: the name implies thesedrivers are needed to satisfy the business.

Other drivers support the businessdevelopment of the organization butthese drivers assist the organization tosurvive and stay alive in the competitivebusiness environment.

Bocken et al. (2014) propose a categorisation of “sustainable business model archetypes� aiming at categorizing and explaining business model innovations for sustainability; providing mechanisms to assist the innovation process for embedding sustainability in business models (e.g. through case studies and workshops); defining a clearer research agenda for business models for sustainability; and providing exemplars for businesses to de-risk the SBM innovation process. The sustainable business model archetypes are viewed as a starting point to broaden and unify the research agenda for sustainable business models (Fig. 2).

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability (2016) Vol. 2, No4

Maximize material and energy efficiency

Create value from‘waste’

Substitute with renewables and natural processes

Deliver functionality, rather than ownership

Encourage sufficiency

Re-purpose the business for society/ environment

Develop scale-up solutions

Adopt a stewardship role

Fig. 2. Sustainable business model archetypes (According to Bocken et al., 2014 cited by Zahariev and Arabska, 2015)

Asifa et al. (2013) develop an original framework for the integration of CSR into business processes stating that while many organizations utilize management systems to address their stakeholder requirements, their research “elaborates on how organizations can capitalize on their existing management systems in order to more successfully introduce CSR practices”.

Corporate social responsibility consists of the obligations of businesses to society and from that point of view its directions are connected to society, environment, human capital and work conditions, knowledge and education (Zahariev and Arabska, 2015).

The varieties of CSR open many disputes of the levels of involvement, forms, etc. and turn the concept into the basic element of corporate culture in modern organizations.

The uniting vector is in the specific attributes of CSR in different spheres (Fig. 3).

Environment

Business practices

Society

Products

Energy

Knowledge

Human resources

Fig. 3. Spheres of CSR (According to Zahariev and Arabska, 2015)

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Among the common characteristics of CSR are environmentally friendly and social policies in organizations as well as their inner and outer character. The notion that economic and social goals in organizations are separate and competitive (economic being connected to profit making and social to profit spending) is not the case anymore considering the fact that the organizations are part of the environment and society. The voluntary applications of CSR in modern organizations aiming at ecological and social effects are scrutinized as closely connected to raise in competitiveness and flexicurity. Today CSR policies are part of the strategies in many organizations as a means of integrating permanently increasing requirements of society towards business processes and products and of increase in added value in business.Since the mid-1990s, an increasing number of organizations around the world started to disclose nonfinancial information related to social issues, such as environmental

preservation,

human

rights

protection,

employees’

welfare

improvement, and contributions to their communities and societies (Dhaliwal et al., 2014).

Besides it is difficult to define all CSR manifestations, it can be concluded that the responsible way of functioning of all kind of organizations on different levels imposed by the increasing requirements towards accountability and transparency impacts image and performance of organizations in local and global scope considering globalization processes, innovations and knowledge society (Zahariev & Arabska, 2015).

The standards of CSR in Bulgaria are discussed by Bakardjieva (2012). The dynamics in CSR development in economic literature is considered in a study in Bulgaria which underlies the pressing necessity of social responsibility of organizations (Dimitrov et al., 2014).

STANDARDS

OF

OPPORTUNITIES

SUSTAINABLE OF

DEVELOPMENT

INTERGRATED

APPROACHES

REPORTING: FOR

CSR

DEVELOPMENT The GRI Standards are the first global standards for sustainability reporting. They feature a modular, interrelated structure, and represent the global best practice for reporting on a range of economic, environmental and social impacts7.

7

GRI Standards: https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/.

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability (2016) Vol. 2, No4

The GRI Standards represent global best practice for reporting publicly on a range of economic, environmental and social impacts. Sustainability reporting based on the standards provides information about an organization’s positive or negative contributions to sustainable development.

The modular interrelated GRI Standards are designed primarily to be used as a set, to prepare a sustainability report focused on material topics. The three universal standards are used by every organization that prepares a sustainability report. An organization also chooses from the topic-specific standards to report on its material topics – economic, environmental or social.

Preparing a report in accordance with the GRI Standards provides an inclusive picture of an organization’s material topics, their related impacts, and how they are managed. An organization can also use all or part of selected GRI Standards to report specific information.

Universal standards GRI 101: Foundation 2016 is the starting point for using the GRI Standards. GRI 101 can be used by an organization of any size, type, sector, or geographic location that wants to use the GRI Standards to report about its economic, environmental, and/or social impacts.

GRI 101: Foundation is the starting point for an organization to use the GRI Standards to report about its economic, environmental, and/or social impacts.

The GRI Standards create a common language for organizations and stakeholders, with which the economic, environmental, and social impacts of organizations can be communicated and understood. They have been designed to enhance the global comparability and quality of information on these impacts, thereby enabling greater transparency and accountability of organizations. The GRI Standards have been developed primarily to be used together to help an organization prepare a sustainability report that is in accordance with the Standards. This provides a full and balanced picture of the organization’s economic, environmental, and social impacts, and how it manages these impacts. Selected GRI Standards, or parts of their content, can also be used to report specific information, without preparing a report in accordance with the Standards. GRI 101 is divided into three sections: Section 1 presents the Reporting Principles for defining report content and report quality. These Reporting Principles are fundamental to helping an organization decide what information to include in a sustainability report and how to ensure the quality of the information. Section 2 explains the basic process for using the GRI Standards for

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sustainability reporting. This section includes fundamental requirements for applying the Reporting Principles, and for identifying and reporting on material topics.Section 3 sets out the ways that the GRI Standards can be used and the specific claims, or statements of use, which are required for organizations using the Standards.

GRI 102: General Disclosures 2016 sets out reporting requirements on contextual information about an organization and its sustainability reporting practices. This Standard can be used by an organization of any size, type, sector or geographic location.

GRI 102: General Disclosures is used to report contextual information about an organization and its sustainability reporting practices. This includes information about an organization’s profile, strategy, ethics and integrity, governance, stakeholder engagement practices, and reporting process. The disclosures in GRI 102 provide the context for subsequent, more detailed reporting using other GRI Standards. Contextual information about an organization (for example, about its size, geographic location, or activities) is important to help stakeholders understand the nature of the organization and its economic, environmental and social impacts.

GRI 103: Management Approach 2016 sets out reporting requirements about the approach an organization uses to manage a material topic. This Standard can be used by an organization of any size, type, sector or geographic location.

Management approach disclosures enable an organization to explain how it manages the economic, environmental and social impacts related to material topics. This provides narrative information about how the organization identifies, analyzes, and responds to its actual and potential impacts. Disclosure about an organization’s management approach also provides context for the information reported using topicspecific Standards (series 200, 300 and 400). This can be especially useful for explaining quantitative information to stakeholders. The reporting requirements in this Standard have a generic form, and can be applied to a wide variety of topics. An organization preparing a report in accordance with the GRI Standards is required to report its management approach for each material topic using this Standard. Topicspecific Standards can also contain additional reporting requirements, reporting recommendations and/or guidance for reporting management approach information about the topic in question.

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Topic-specific standards Economic Standards The 200 series of the GRI Standards include topic-specific Standards used to report information on an organization’s material impacts related to economic topics.

GRI 201: Economic Performance 2016 GRI 202: Market Presence 2016 GRI 203: Indirect Economic Impacts 2016 GRI 204: Procurement Practices 2016 GRI 205: Anti-corruption 2016 Environmental Standards The 300 series of the GRI Standards include topic-specific Standards used to report information on an organization’s material impacts related to environmental topics.

GRI 301: Materials 2016 GRI 302: Energy 2016 GRI 303: Water 2016 GRI 304: Biodiversity 2016 GRI 305: Emissions 2016 GRI 306: Effluents and Waste 2016 GRI 307: Environmental Compliance 2016 GRI 308: Supplier Environmental Assessment 2016 Social Standards The 400 series of the GRI Standards include topic-specific Standards used to report information on an organization’s material impacts related to social topics.

GRI 401: Employment 2016 GRI 402: Labor/Management Relations 2016 GRI 403: Occupational Health and Safety 2016 GRI 404: Training and Education 2016 GRI 405: Diversity and Equal Opportunity 2016 GRI 406: Non-discrimination 2016 GRI 407: Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining 2016 GRI 408: Child Labor 2016 GRI 409: Forced or Compulsory Labor 2016 GRI 410: Security Practices 2016 GRI 411: Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2016 GRI 412: Human Rights Assessment 2016

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GRI 413: Local Communities 2016 GRI 414: Supplier Social Assessment 2016 GRI 415: Public Policy 2016 GRI 416: Customer Health and Safety 2016 GRI 417: Marketing and Labeling 2016 GRI 418: Customer Privacy 2016 GRI 419: Socioeconomic Compliance 2016

The standards imply the provision of information covering a wide range of indicators revealing the status of the company. The scope of reporting includes data for annual financial statements, monitoring and reporting, forecasting, assessment of financial and non-financial risk analysis of the supply chain, life cycle assessment and tools for environmental protection. Information is also summarized on relevant international standards for CSR. The approach for collection and processing of business information presented implies some requirements that are defined to the layout of the report and how its verification is made by internal and independent external audit.

CONCLUSION The paper presents a brief analyses of the interrelations of sustainable development goals and corporate social responsibility. The transparency is considered as the key principle in reporting. In this regard, GRI is discussed in terms of the advantages of standards, especially concerning intergrated reporting, i.e. a summary of the main stages of preparation of the report on sustainable development in its key stages determining the content and quality of the report, the boundaries of reporting, disclosure of standard indicators that allow comparison and evaluation, and orientation of the report to the requirements of sustainable development.

REFERENCES 17 goals to transform our world: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-developmentgoals/.

Arabska, E., Terziev, V. (2016). Organic production business model and the concept of

corporate

social

responsibility.

Journal

of

economic

development,

environment and people (JEDEP), Volume 5, Issue 2, 2016, pp. 23-30.

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Asifa, M., Searcy, C., Zutshi, A., Fisscher, O.A.M. (2013). An integrated management systems approach to corporate social responsibility. Journal of Cleaner Production 56 (2013) 7-17 Bakardjieva R. (2012). Corporate social responsibility standards, Economic Studies No2, pp. 149-160.

Bakardjieva, R. (2009). Corporate social responsibility of the firms in Bulgaria.

Economic studies No2, pp. 33-63.

Bocken, N. M. P., Short, S.W., Rana, P., Evans, S. (2014). A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes. Journal of Cleaner Production 65 (2014) 42-56 Bulgarian network for CSR: http://www.csr.bg/.

Cochran, P. L. (2007). The evolution of corporate social responsibility. Business Horizons 50, pp. 449–454.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the EU: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=331&langId=en/.

Dhaliwal, D., Zhen Li, O., Tsang, A., Yang, Y. G. (2014). Corporate social responsibility disclosure and the cost of equity capital: The roles of stakeholder orientation and financial transparency. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Volume 33, Issue 4, July–August 2014, pp. 328–355.

Dimitrov M., S. Keremedchiev, P. Chipev, R. Bakardjieva, V. Daskalov, N. Ivanova (2014). Corporate governance for XXI century: consolidation of standards for good corporate governance in Bulgaria. Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Europe 2020: http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/index_en.htm/.

Govindan K., Kannan, D., Shankar, K.M. (2014). Evaluating the drivers of corporate social responsibility in the mining industry with multi-criteria approach: A multi-stakeholder perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 84, pp. 214-232.

GRI Standards: https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/.

Nikolova, N, Todorova, I., Nenova, N. (2014). Corporate social responsibility as a strategic priority in the competitive behavior of the company. Scientific works “MathTech 2014”, Bishop Konstantin Preslavski University of Shumen, Vol. 1, pp. 333-340.

Nikolova, N., Yordanova, I. (2014). Corporate social responsibility as a mechanism for the integration of economic, social and ecological goals of the organization.

Proceedings of the Closing conference under the project “System of

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qualification and career development of the university teachers”, Vasil Levski National Military University – Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, pp. 219-229.

Pop, O., Dina, G. C., Martin, C. (2011). Promoting the corporate social responsibility for a green economy and innovative jobs. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15, 1020–1023.

Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015 [without reference to a Main Committee (A/70/L.1)] 70/1. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E. Viola, I. , Ruggeri, F., Rotondo, G. (2013). Corporate social responsibility and green economy in the agri-food business. Quality - Access to Success, Volume 14, Issue suppl. 1, pp. 151-156.

Windsor, D. (2013). Corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility: A positive theory approach. Journal of Business Research, Volume 66, Issue 10, October 2013, pp. 1937–1944.

Zahariev, El. Challenges before the industrial management: priorities and solutions.

Academic Publishing House “Talent” at the University of Agribusiness and Rural Development – Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 2013.

Zahariev, El. Corporate social responsibility. Academic Publishing House “Talent” at the University of Agribusiness and Rural Development – Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 2014.

Zahariev, El., Arabska, E. (2015). Corporate social responsibility and organic production business model – sustainability performance, consumer trust and motivation.

IV

International

scientific

conference

CLIMATE

CHANGE,

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ENVIRONMENT AND PEOPLE CONFERENCE (CCEDEP) under the subtopic Regional development of Central and Eastern European countries, 7-9 October 2014, UARD – Plovdiv, Proceedings Volume 2, pp. 285-296.

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability

Volume 2 Number 4 2016

Incommensurate Environmental Risks and the Regulator’s Dilemma in the Governance of Emergency Situation Vesela Radovic1 Institute for Multidisciplinary Research, Belgrade University, Serbia Abstract In the 21st century humans face with the great risk how to protect themselves from disasters of different kinds. Emergencies happened in many countries and caused a great suffering of humans. The main question of stakeholders is: ‘’how to protect human health and environment in an adequate way’’. Emergency management is an issue which is included in numerous education institutions all over the globe and the action of various national and international organizations. Therefore it is interesting that in the process of fostering emergency management many countries neglect the need of creating more effective tools for response, preparedness and recovery in environmental emergencies. The paper is based on analyzes of Serbian approach in the governance of emergency situation followed by incommensurate environmental risks. Serbia had to accept International environmental emergency help after the floods in 2014. The Joint United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) / Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Environment Unit (JEU) helped Serbia to mitigate consequences of horrified environmental emergency in “Stolice” mine near city Krupanj. This assistance was needed because Serbia did not have enough capacity to struggle with the consequences of breaking the dam and contamination of soil and rivers. This study shows that a similar disaster in the future could be solved only by strengthening multilateral response of different actors at local and national level. After all, Serbia is at the beginning of the path, and need to highlight strategic challenges in the governance of emergency situation followed by environmental emergencies.

Only with full implementation of positive practice of the international community Serbia could avoid long term impact on life support functions, nature and humans.

Key words: environmental risk, environmental emergency, emergency situation, governance.

1

Corresponding author: Prof. Vesela Radovic, Ph.D. E-mail: veselaradovic@yahoo.com

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INTRODUCTION Environmental protection in different disasters is an important issue in global world.

Scientist and wider global community in last few decades proved that disasters pose numerous risks to society by threatening human life, destroying personal resources and, in late modernity, creating toxic and hazardous environments where humans are exposed to dangerous chemicals, radiation, infectious disease and other biotechnological threats (Beck, 2006). Hence, environmental security become unavoidable part of national security and this issue affects the creation of prevention policies on different hierarchical level - from global to local (Radovic & Arabska, 2015).

In history of human civilization it is well known that environmental factors shaped the destiny of numerous civilizations. Environmental security literature made strong casual claims that rapid population growth was linked to resource degradation and continued conflict in many regions (Buzan & Wæver, 2003; Ullman, 1983). During 1970s and 1980s the scope of securitization has changed as well as referent security object from a national to a human centered security concept. Those changes are recognized in the United Nations (UN) system, and in the academic security community. Brauch (2005) stated that „re-conceptualizing security” was the factor which created new security concepts: „human security” and „environmental security” as its part. Hakala (2012) pointed that „environmental citizenship” has an important role in rooting environmental security at the local level as both the consequences of environmental degradation and efforts towards its preservation are directly felt there.

An increasing level of environmental democracy may also result in improvements in equality and access to justice who, in the long run, may lead to improving social stability. Environmental citizenship goes directly to the question of environmental participation and, at its simplest, concerns environmental rights and responsibilities.

The Balkan countries are interesting from the point of view of environmental security.

Unfortunately, there are numerous examples in environmental protection, risk management and risk communication in which countries in that region failed in last decade. The recent ones are the enormous floods which disrupted the normal life in some countries. These emergencies engaged a set of questions for public discussion and initiated many discussions how the governments and other important actors could manage risks and communicate about them more efficiently (Terziev et al., 2015).

Discussions and studies on the

problems of environmental security and

environmental citizenship should be conducted through specific investigations on national and regional levels considering the most important factors in connection to

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environmental characteristics and historical development of the regions, as well as economic, social and cultural development in conditions of globalization processes in contemporary world.

Recent events of environmental disasters on the Balkans provoked many implications on the performance of alert and response systems in environmental and other crises’ management. There are discussions on the importance of risk communications at all the stages as being the main factor in prevention, mitigation and recovery’s effectiveness (Terziev et al., 2015).

The recent example could be found in the floods which happened in 2014 on the Balkans. Continuous, heavy rainfall, commencing on 13 May 2014, caused extensive flooding in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), and Croatia. Croatia was affected by the floods to a lesser extent than Serbia or Bosnia, but the most critical area was in its Southern part, Slavonia. Despite long previous history of floods, and well-known probabilities of other existing environmental risks, Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina still face a lack of capacity, as well as awareness, and so many times mentioned responsibility to prevent the loss of life and suffering of humans in disaster.

Disasters cause spills which could be extremely danger not only at the site where accident has occurred. This risk goes beyond geography, it also includes historically developed

industrial

production

systems,

industrial

waste

facilities,

etc.

Contamination could severely impact biophysical environment of territory and it could pose serious risks to health and social well-being of residents. Contamination is present in all environmental components and could be fast spread from one component to another (from soil to water, etc.).

Management of contaminated sites is a tiered process starting with a preliminary survey searching for sites that are likely to be contaminated, followed by doing site investigations where the actual extent of contamination is, defining its environmental impacts, and finally implementing remedial and after care measures (Radović & Rakić, 2013). The implementation of such activities in Serbia are still far from objectives, and they are evaluated as insufficient in numerous official reports and scientific researches, due to many objective and subjective reasons. Currently the remediation process of contaminated sites is mainly sporadic, and it is proved in the articles of recent award for excellence in investigative journalism to the journalist Adama Santovac and Nova Television about the lack of capacity in Serbian government to cope with consequences of failure tailings in closed mine “Stolice” near the Krupanj caused by the floods in 2014.

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The Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit (JEU) provided an environmental expert to assess risks from flooded industrial zones as well as a flood management expert to identify flood mitigation measures in Serbia in 20142. UNEP carried out a series of field visits to priority environmental sites of concern, including the collapsed Kostajnik antimony tailing dam abandoned from 1991 and many other contaminated sites. Failure of the Stolice mine tailing dam in Krupanj is one of the major environmental concerns from the extremely heavy rainfall that flooded SouthWestern Serbia in mid-May 2014 and still are in mid May 2015.

Serbia’s environmental problems remain formidable as well as for other countries which are usually recognized with specific political regime in the past (socialist, communist), and especially facing numerous economic troubles caused by global economic crises and other various factors. This process is constantly followed by the obstacles how to provide needed financial means. The Republic of Serbia presented that it needs international financial help in the area of environmental protection in the approximation of strategy and it would be useful to consider in advance cost and financial

management

aspects

of

remediation

activities. Furthermore, after

catastrophic floods in 2014 Serbia was forced to seek international help and took numerous loans for the purpose of mitigation of horrible consequences which will significantly affect future sustainable development.

ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS: WHY TO BOTHER? The last decades’ world development marked by great economic and social challenges along with fast technological modernization should be concerned from two different but interconnected points of view- opportunities and risks, and this is the case for all the spheres of social and economic life but at any time connected to the sustainable development, and especially environmental aspects. The last ones should not be ignored because they could be affected by every one human activity on one hand, or they could be out of the human control of the other, and any risk developed into a crisis could bear tremendous impacts on the political, economic and/or social system in a country or a region. Changes are needed and should not be avoided but targeted actions to be undertaken in order to manage risks and assure security as a whole starting from understanding risks and putting the scientific base first. The relationships between the efficiency of risk management system and reaction show the importance of preventive measures (Terziev et al., 2015).

2

INFORM 2015. http://www.inform-index.org/Results/Global/.

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Environmental risks could be man-made or natural incidents but all have impacts on human health and environment, as well as on economic and social life.

Management, and communication in particular, could be considered from two points of view: prevention and emergency in dependence of an event current or future occurrence. Main questions are: who manage risk and who are at risk. The risk communication is viewed as exchange of information about risks having the goal of avoiding crises and conducted under the principles of openness and transparency.

In World development report (WDR) 2014 it is stated that „risk management is the process of confronting risks, preparing for them, and coping with their effects” which is regarded as twofold: resilience as ability of recovering and prosperity in terms of opportunities for development. Three key actions are determent in preparation: acquiring knowledge, building protection, and obtaining insurance. The report considers the potentials of households, communities, enterprises, financial system, state and international community and there complementary actions in risk management ensuring its efficacy and effectiveness.

Risks can be of different nature: crime, disease, financial crises, natural disasters, etc., and can have various manifestations and impacts. The crisis event is usually characterized by a high level of uncertainty, decision making and actions under the pressure of global concerns. That’s why first of all it is very important to understand and identify, make assessments and decisions to act in a proper way in the three stages of risk handling: pre-crises, in-crisis and post-crisis. In all that the vulnerability of a country, a region or a society is of crucial significance. The World risk index considering exposure, susceptibility, coping capacities and adaptive capacities is meant to answer four general questions regarding probability, vulnerability, coping capabilities and preventive measures. The World risk report 2014 edition focuses on risks in urban areas. The world risk index considers disasters resulting from extreme natural events.

Environmental risks are one of the five categories according to the Global risk report of the World economic forum (WEF) for 2014 along with economic risks, geopolitical risks, societal risks and technological risks. They are determined as including: “both natural disasters, such as earthquakes and geomagnetic storms, and man-made risks such as collapsing ecosystems, freshwater shortages, nuclear accidents and failure to mitigate or adapt to climate change”3. The same report outlines amongst the global risks for 2014 the following: greater incidence of extreme weather events (e.g. floods,

3

Global Risks 2014 Insight report, Ninth Edition, World economic forum.

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storms, fires); greater incidence of natural catastrophes (e.g. earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic

eruptions,

geomagnetic

storms);

greater

incidence

of

man-made

environmental catastrophes (e.g. oil spills, nuclear accidents); major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse (land and ocean); water crises; failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation. The ninth edition of the insight report on global risks of World economic forum points out among the ten global risks of highest concern in 2014 four which are of environmental nature: water crises, failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation, extreme weather events4. Thus, it is very important to “watch” trends and deal with risks applying new approaches to future challenges getting out of the reactive mode through proactive early warning and response systems understanding emerging risks and handling them as part of the global systemic risk (Terziev et al., 2015).

The Global Climate risk index report (2014) states that climatic impacts do not trigger the required policy change in the Eastern European countries (both in mitigation and adaptation) and that “following the region’s unparalleled 2011 wildfires, the 2012 drought and flooding in large areas of the Balkan, Eastern Europe and Southern Russia should serve as a wake-up call for the region to ramp up its domestic and international climate policy positions”. Based on the conclusion of the European Climate Adaptation Platform that European countries are at different stages of preparing, developing and implementing adaptation strategies, it is accepted that “this development depends on the magnitude and nature of the observed impacts, the assessment of current and future vulnerability and the capacity to adapt”5. The report presents data that Balkan countries are in the list of the 15 European countries most affected in the period 1993-2012.

On the basis of the presented data some conclusions are made that there are severe problems in the coordination between government, local authorities, institutions, other stakeholders and public at different stages: before, during and after disaster.

The preparedness, preventive actions and the knowledge on disasters are inadequate, as well as the connection to community and its involvement in disaster management system.

4

Ibid.

5

Global Climate Risk Index 2014. Who Suffers Most from Extreme Weather Events? Weather-Related

Loss Events in 2012 and 1993 to 2012. Sönke Kreft & David Eckstein. Germanwatch e.V. www.germanwatch.org/en/cri.

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Regarding the risk it is important to put in front of the wider public the data presented in the World Risk Report6. This index is related to natural hazards and it is obtained and calculated by combining the four components of exposure, susceptibility, the lack of coping capacities and the lack of adaptive capacities. The closer explanation of the methodology about calculating the World Risk Index has been given in the complete report. From the data presented in Table 1 it is clear that Serbia despite improving its position is still on inadequate place regarding the value of the World Risk Index.7.

Table 1 show that Serbia has a high probability of being affected by natural disasters in 2012. It holds the second place in the selected set of the neighbour countries with high values for both factors of exposure and vulnerability. Serbia is at the 66th position out of 173 countries that are included in the World Risk Index overview8.

Table 1. World Risk Index 2012 and World Risk Index 2014 for Serbia Country Serbia

Year

Rank

Vulnerability

Exposure

World Risk Index

2012

66

42,52%

18,05%

7,67%

2014

76

38,30%

18,05%

6,91%

Sources: World Risk Report 2012 and World Risk Report 2014

The closer explanation of the methodology about calculating the World Risk Index is that it is the result of the product of Exposure and Vulnerability (the two contributed factors). From the data presented in Table 1 is clear that Serbia, despite improving its position, is still on inadequate place regarding the value of the World Risk Index.

Another report is based on the data obtain from InfoRM report (Table 2). The overall InfoRM (index for risk management) identifies countries at risk from humanitarian crises and disasters that could overwhelm national response capacity. InfoRM is a global, open-source risk assessment and it can support decisions about prevention, preparedness and response9.

6World

Risk Report. Reports can be downloaded for every year: 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 from

www.WorldRiskReport.org 7More

in-depth information, scientific details of the methodology applied and tables are available at

www.WorldRiskReport.org.

8

World Risk Report 2012. BĂźndnis Entwicklung Hilft, UNU, EHS.

World Risk Report 2014. BĂźndnis Entwicklung Hilft, UNU, EHS. 9

INFORM 2015. http://www.inform-index.org/Results/Global/.

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability (2016) Vol. 2, No4

Table 2. Serbian risk profiles Country: Serbia

Value

Rank

InfoRM

3,69

87

Hazard

3,22

76

Vulnerability

3,57

84

Coping capacity

4,37

115

Source: InfoRM 2015 There are numerous considerations about the future prevention of contamination during and after disasters in Serbia. Polluting mine accidents and widespread environmental contamination associated with historic industrial pollution in Serbia has triggered the improvement of related environmental legislation and of the environmental assessment and management methods for pollution prevention.

Therefore, there is a need to review and evaluate some of the decision support methods that have been developed and applied to environmental contamination during disaster.

In Serbia stakeholders have to be more active regarding this issue. In numerous researches the health risk from contaminated sites is proved but actions are missed.

It is the final time that policy makers among all accept their responsibility to enforce the implementation of approved environmental regulation. Long-term contamination sometimes stayed for years in a recovered area affected by a toxic spill. At the end, the most significant obstacles in funding need to be overcome by the political will of the government, despite all unfavourable economic and social conditions, because these environmental risks could significantly affect the health of the population and make further actions more expensive.

The Republic of Serbia has been suffering enormous consequences caused by natural disasters in the last few years. In 2009 in the area of emergency management Serbia established within the Ministry of Interior a special service, Sector for Emergency Management (SEM), a government institution responsible for the development of the protection and rescue policy. The Serbian National Assembly adopted the Law on Emergency. Despite all of this efforts in the area of the protection there is a lot of room for improvement.

There are many specifics in the impacts of natural disasters but some major conclusions could be drawn. Elements of disaster planning and mitigation are defined through three basic questions (Taboroff, 2001): “What can go wrong? What are the range and the magnitude of the adverse impacts? How likely are the adverse

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impacts?”. Risk analyses embrace three components: hazard, control mechanism and receptor. Evaluation of risks could be based on two factors: the probability that events will cause or lead to degradation, and the severity of degradation. Risk mapping provides the geographical component to risk evaluation (Taboroff, 2001). The interlinked components of risk management are presented in the World development report 201410 as follows: knowledge, protection, insurance, and coping.

IMPORTANCE OF PREVENTION AND EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE OF EMERGENCY SITUATIONS In last few decades the humanity faced a number of tremendous natural disasters as floods and earthquakes attracting the public attention to the great losses but little attention is paid to the climate change and extreme climatic events (as a specific kind of possible natural phenomena/disasters) influencing slowly and characterized by a delay in the final impacts. The need of risk assessment and risk management activities is especially sharp in cases where there is a lack of financial and human resources needed for prevention, mitigation and recovery activities in those objects (Arabska et. al., 2015).

UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ICDR) defines natural hazards as natural process or phenomenon that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihood and services, social and economic disruption, or environmental damage11. Extreme climatic events are closely connected with global climate change and due to that fact recognized as a specific kind of natural disasters. International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) defines extreme weather event as “a rare event concerning its statistical distribution on a certain spot”12.

Under climatic extremes there are considered not only the extremes of the atmospheric events in narrow sense, but also the consequences of climatic processes, including the seasons of their occurrence and extremes of the parameters of climatic elements and proposed a precise classification of extreme climatic events like climate extremes or climatic events (Andjelkovic, 2010).

10

World Development Report 2014: Risk and Opportunity: Managing Risk for Development. The World

Bank.

11

United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. http://www.unisdr.org/who-we-

are/international-strategy-for-disaster-reduction.

12

International Panel for Climate Change IPPC, (2007). The Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change

(ARW 4). Geneva, Switzerland.

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability (2016) Vol. 2, No4

Extreme climatic events expose vulnerabilities of socioeconomic infrastructures and environment and point to directions of policy change. Impact of extreme climatic events on biodiversity is undoubtable (Terziev et al., 2014). On the other hand, the contribution of biodiversity-dependent ecosystem services to national economies is substantial. Therefore, one among the main ecological risks all over the world is biodiversity loss. The Ecological Society of America (ESA) in one of the reports alerted ecologists to the need to focus ecological research on three basic priorities13: 

Global environmental change



Biological diversity and



Sustainable ecological system.

Ecological risk can be presented by the following equation: ECOLOGICAL RISK = EVENT PROBABILITY * CONSEQUENCES The basic terms related to ecological risk analysis are the following ones: 

Ecological risk analysis which is an evaluation process of frequency and

consequences of the identified dangerous situation; 

Ecological risk control which is an evaluation method for decrease of frequency or

consequence of dangerous situation; 

Ecological risk management which is an evaluation and permanent process of

decision making and performing practical measures to reduce of potential ecological hazard at the study area.

Various proposals for methodology of ecological risk management procedure are known at the national and international level. Procedure of ecological risk management, consisted of the following six steps, is one of the most used in practice: - Goals defining; - Risks and threatens identification; - Ecological risk analysis- risks categorization: critical, important and less important (unimportant); - Ecological risk evaluation- ecological risk evaluation; - Analysis of alternatives and choice of methods for ecological risk management; - Application of chosen methods of management, monitoring and control of used methods efficiency and potential changes if necessary.

Process of ecological risk management is permanent activity strengthening state capacities as response to identified ecological hazard, defining other types of cooperation and organization of factors within the framework. The general rule is

13

Ecological society of America (ESA).

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known that the risk increases with probability of its occurrence and volume of consequences, which is also valid for ecological risk. Potential consequences are evaluated on the following basis related to the risk: neglectable, low, medium, high, and very high (Radovic et al., 2011).

In the last decade a lot of articles have been published with the objective to explain how to manage consequences from natural disasters presenting the theories about crises and emergency management and so far. It starts to be a question of prestige in Serbian academic community to attract the attention of wider public and almost it became a question of “academic fashion”. Despite all there is a question what are we doing in practice and how to response timely and adequately on perils. This question which is still seeking for answer is: Who should conduct response efforts in disasters and be responsible? The answer stayed hidden, hardly even recognizing common theories, and followed with explanation of numerous subjective and objective obstacles. Despite clear legal responsibilities, in practice everything remains hidden “behind the wall”. Some events left experts speechless, or even they spoke about destiny and real causes remain unclear. Often officials from the emergence sector insist on facts that from 2009 almost none of the local municipalities don’t have a specific emergency response plan, without even thinking on why they don’t have such, and what the reason local communities not to do that is.

The exploration of resources has accelerated in the period of industrialization of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFR Yugoslavia or SFRY) and its trace could be found in all the countries originated after its dissolution. The problems of air and water quality in the major industrial centers, the decline in agricultural land and the reduction in soil fertility are all still major concerns. Mining and chemical industry additionally jeopardizes environment, especially in the process of privatization, and remains a source of significant environmental pollution, mainly owing to inadequate capacity and poorly enforced environmental standards. This fact is presented in public by the statement of Serbian Prime Minister Vucic when he mentioned that even Serbian Security-Information Agency (SIA) in its report about the flood risk in 2014 expresses the worry about “ecological disasters” due to abandoned industrial facilities, mostly chemical factory in Sabac. It could be an important step to move forward especially having in mind that environment has already become an important task for the Intelligence Community in the global world (Radovic & Trivan, 2014).

There are a lot of scientific articles in which researchers, experts and other interested parties present various analyses of scope and success of Serbian planned remediation

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Journal of Innovations and Sustainability (2016) Vol. 2, No4

activities – ongoing and some of the future challenges, but it looks that still there are a great gap between academic community and policy makers. Soil management in Serbia is accomplished by planning sustainable use and conservation of soil quality and diversity in accordance with environmental protection requirements and measures established by the various laws and sub-laws. Even though Serbia made a lot of progress, it is far from satisfactory levels regarding soil protection. In the Serbian

environmental

protection

agency

(SEPA)

report

it

is

stated

that

375 contaminated sites have been detected in the Republic of Serbia, mainly as a result of industrial processes, mining activities, inadequate waste management and accidents, etc. Serbia has achieved small progress in the management of contaminated sites: remediation was done on 5,7% of identified and confirmed sites; detailed research is completed on 0,5% sites. Since the identification of sites preliminary research has been done in 93,8% of sites14. Surprising facts are presented in the part devoted to the issue of management: contaminated sites in 2013 were 422. Industrial commercials sites make 36,30% of this figure, since industrial contaminated location is noted in 222 sites. Except few paragraphs there are not much information about the management of contaminated sited and soil remediation processes. This fact is not encouraging, especially having in mind the exposure level to different kind of disasters in Serbia15. The question that arises is what could we expect in the future and how will we prevent probable contamination in disasters and avoid spending of financial resources for remediation purposes. We have to be sure that decision makers would make the most appropriate choice among contaminated sites and would not accept the conversion of private contaminated sites into orphan sites16 [7], and therefore force citizens to pay for some irresponsible behaviour which is not institutionally prevented. Government activities should encourage and force enterprises to increased preventive measures if they handle toxic substances. If the last ones expect to bear cleanup costs for future contamination, they may generate less waste and use more permanent treatment and disposal than they would in the absence of liability. The private debt nowhere in the world could be treated as a public debt, and therefore has to be clear that state actors will act following the established

14

Report on the environmental status in the Republic of Serbia in 2010. Agency for environmental

protection.

15

Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), Ministry of Environment, Mining and Spatial

Planning.

16

Progress in the management of Contaminated Sites in Europe, Institute for Environment and

Sustainability, Joint Research Centre reference report, EC, 2014.

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legal framework and force anyone to pay for caused environmental damage. In numerous laws “polluter pays principle” is clearly defined, as well as the criminal acts against environment (Radovic & Arabska, 2015).

CONCLUSION Current study confirms that if the approach of emergency management is changed in practice, Serbia will avoid being the object of numerous scientific and institutional reports presenting Serbian insufficient capacity to cope with different perils.

Government has to work on increasing the level of knowledge and skills of stakeholders, recognize and amend inadequate institutional activities, improve and implement the legal environmental framework into practice, especially general policy regarding environmental justice in the Republic in Serbia. Serbian government is responsible to provide security in every part of Serbia, in any area, with no differences in case of a terrorist act or “an irresponsible person” jeopardizing health and life of people, and environmental status in generally. The bond between the few considerations in this study lies in the aspiration to emphasize the importance of urgent implementation of effective methodological methods and the need policy makers to change the responsibility approaches in emergencies as a whole, and specifically those concerning environment and its components – a question not only of having a good public will and relevant legislation, but also putting it into action and building capacities in a number of fields and processes in society and business for achievement of sustainable development.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This paper was written as a part of the project Nr. III 43010 “Modulation of antioxidative metabolism in plants for improvement of plant abiotic stress tolerance and identification of new biomarkers for application in remediation and monitoring of degraded biotopes” which is financed by the Ministry of education, science and technological development of the Republic of Serbia.

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REFERENCES Andjelkovic, G. (2010). Climate Extremes in Serbia, definitions, types and classification, Bulletin of the Serbian Geographical Society, Tome XC No4, pp.125-137.

Arabska, E., Grigorova, Z., Radovic, V. (2015). Protection of cultural and historical heritage of natural disasters and extreme climatic events. International conference "Cultural corridor Via Adriatica - cultural tourism without boundaries", 15-19 October 2015, pp. 287-294.

Beck, U. (2006). Living in the world risk society. Economy and Society, Volume 35, Number 3, pp. 329-345.

Brauch, H. G. (2005). Reconceptualising security from national to environmental and human security. International security, peace, development and environment.

Vol. II. Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS). Available at: http://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c14/E1-39B-25.pdf/.

Buzan B., Wรฆver, O. (2003). Regions and powers. The structure of international security. Cambridge Studies in International Relations: 91. Available at: http://blogriobranco. files.wordpress.com/2010/04/buzan.pdf/.

Ecological society of America (ESA). http://www.esa.org/esa/.

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Radovic, V., Arabska, E. (2015). Preventing contamination in disasters - from theory to the practice in Serbia. XXIII International Conference "ECOLOGICAL TRUTH" Eco-Ist'15, 17 – 20 June 2015, Serbia, pp. 653 660.

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United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. http://www.unisdr.org/who-we-are/international-strategy-for-disasterreduction/.

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First International Scientific Conference SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES IN MODERN ORGANIZATIONS Knowledge & Innovation in Management & Operation

Conference Panel SOCIETY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

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