CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AS A TOOL FOR IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

The aim of the article is to demonstrate the relationship between the concepts of corporate social responsibility and sustainable production and consumption. CSR helps the organization increase efficiency and credibility, engage in dialogue and engage stakeholders in cooperation, as well as identify social, environmental and ethical risk management. The implementation of CSR requires a comprehensive change in the functioning of the enterprise. Companies that have implemented CSR should, above all, transparently inform consumers about their products, i.e. implement the principles of the European product policy and the guidelines of sustainable consumption and production. The implementation of CSR principles into the company’s business strategy is conducive to building a long-term competitive advantage and relations with the social environment of companies and its stakeholders. For companies that adhere to the principles of CSR, this helps to effectively use the instruments of sustainable consumption and production and thus contribute to sustainable development while increasing European innovation potential and European competitiveness.

EMPOWERING ENGINEERING STUDENTS IN ETHICAL RISK MANAGEMENT

The purpose of our study is to assess to what extent engineers are empowered by their professional training to engage in ethical risk management. Using the concept of self-efficacy and the results from a questionnaire answered by 200 engineering students, we suggest that the present engineering education fails to induce such empowerment.We therefore propose an innovative method to help in this matter. Carried out through workshops with 34 students, the efficiency of this method has been evaluated using group interviews and questionnaires. Our results suggest that such an approach is efficient, at least in the short run, to motivate students to engage in ethical risk management. Maybe more importantly, it triggers reflectivity on what it means to be an engineer today, a first step in engaging into the ultimate Grand Challenge of self-knowledge.

The Need for Governance of Climate Geoengineering

Keeping global temperature rise to within 1.5–2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels is looking increasingly unlikely through mitigation alone. While increased adaptation to inevitable climate impacts will be necessary, a new realism is creeping into the climate debate. A growing number of scientists are proposing geoengineering technologies to deal with the expected shortfall, both through carbon dioxide removal and possibly through solar radiation management. But both approaches bring risks and pose significant governance challenges, and would likely affect different communities in different ways. As geoengineering moves mainstream, it is time to put governance at the heart of future discussion, and to broaden the debate from academia to governments, treaty bodies, faith groups, and civic organizations.The Carnegie Climate Geoengineering Governance Initiative is a major new effort to catalyze this conversation, bringing together players from a wide range of social, geographical, and professional backgrounds. It argues that policymakers need to take an ethical risk management approach, informed by continued research. How should transborder and transgenerational ethical issues be addressed? How will governance frameworks withstand geopolitical change? Can we build on existing international treaties and institutions, or do we need new ones? And most immediately, how should further research on solar engineering be governed—given current plans to start experiments in the stratosphere? In a geoengineered world, who controls the “global thermostat”?