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Manufacturing is often seen as the backbone of economic growth and development. Its importance can be seen on several levels, from production, job creation, export, innovation to boosting growth. To fuel economic growth, the earth's finite natural resources are being depleted and the by-product of production is pollution, potentially leading to climate change. A new concept of sustainable development has emerged and with it the urge to make production more environmentally friendly. The European Union (EU) sees itself as a pioneer in this planetary sustainability crisis, enabling and accelerating the green and digital transition. In doing so, the EU acts as a rule-maker (directives, regulations) and enforcer (guidelines, voluntary commitments) and promotes green practices to a considerable extent with public funds. The European Green Deal, which is seen as the new growth strategy for Europe, aims to make the EU carbon neutral by 2050 and the green and digital transitions are the tools to achieve this. An important aspect of achieving all the goals the EU has set itself is to make human work green too. Jobs that contribute to reducing environmental impact and combating climate change are defined as green jobs. The purpose of this paper is to assess the importance of green jobs in the EU manufacturing sector and EU Member States and to examine their impact on environmental sustainability and the challenges and opportunities associated with their integration. The aim is to assess the extent of green jobs in manufacturing and whether more green jobs in manufacturing correlate with higher economic growth or productivity growth. The main conclusion of this paper is that the share of green jobs in manufacturing is still very low compared to total green employment as well as manufacturing employment and does not show a clear correlation with economic or productivity growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is all around us nowadays. Every day we are poured in with initiatives and information related to sustainable development. The world leaders talk about the green economy, circular economy, green deals, and sustainable development. However, what actually drives the companies to apply sustainable development principles in their business operations? Whether these are the different legislative requirements at the national and international level or the pure economic interest of the companies to earn additional income from their sustainable actions? The present paper highlights the key results of the project "International Business and Sustainable Practices" and attempts to summarize the motivations for the business to be sustainable. The research focuses on the three key dimensions of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social) and the sustainable development practices of internationally operating companies. The main objectives of the study are to identify the major business environment factors influencing the implementation of sustainable practices by companies operating internationally and to analyze the best sustainable development practices. The present study is primarily desk research based on the review of existing literature for developing and promoting the concept of sustainability in everyday business practices. Research papers, projects, and reports of international organisations working for sustainable development are extensively reviewed. The study found that internal environment factors like managers' attitude, employees, and financial benefits are the key motives for the organisations to apply sustainable development practices in their business operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy-makers and academics around the world are searching for effective tools for reducing spatial disparities to gain equal distribution of economic activity and access to services of general interest. Polycentricity is a form of spatial organization is associated with balanced and sustainable development and cohesion across European regions. Cohesion means relatively equal economic development and a lack of disparities. However, this concept is still vague because of inconsistent empirical results. This paper aims to reveal an interconnectedness between polycentricity and economic disparities measured through employment, volume of shipped goods and services, investments in fixed assets. The results showed that polycentric patterns are positively associated with economic disparities. Thus, the monocentric spatial structure encourages the decline of economic disparities in terms of employment, volume of shipped goods and services, investments in fixed assets. The findings could be used in creating spatial programs of development and as a rationale for investment and employment policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the article is to indicate the main challenges and development opportunities related to the bioeconomy, shown in the regional layout on the example of the Małopolska voivodeship. The theoretical part of a paper is basing on a review of the literature regarding a concept of bioeconomy. It finds is conclusions in a model of 'bio-economy triad of challenges', that the conventional economy is facing. The issues of bioeconomy in this paper are presented in a context of: processes taking place between enterprises, consumers and the state, challenges for qualitative and quantitative economic development. Referring to the above-mentioned model, it was stated that the bioeconomy should be the main direction of development as part of the smart specialization strategy for Małopolska. This will allow, among others development of functional value chains, increasing the added value of production and the possibility of sustainable management of natural resources. Attention was also paid to conditions of development that may constitute significant barriers in shaping the bio-profile of the economy on a regional basis: environmental, in the sense of sustainable access to natural resources; social, understood as the quality of social capital and access to a qualified workforce; institutional, being the state's responsibility and related to the law, providing adequate infrastructure or adequate expenditures for R&D. It was noticed that Małopolska is characterized by a dual development model - on the one hand, we are dealing with sectors of modern technologies concentrated in the provincial city and some poviat cities. On the other hand, when we talk about the raw material sphere, one can talk about development destimulants, i.e. agrarian structure, the problem of fallowing land or the lack of a qualified workforce in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the comprehensive approach for sustainable and balanced development of bioeconomy as a cross-cutting economic sector and focuses on the drivers of Lithuanian bioeconomy strategy. Lithuanian bioeconomy strategy development can be motivated by country's specialization and, compared with other EU member states, strong performance in terms of recent growth in all biomass production and fully bio-based manufacturing sectors. However, Lithuanian bioeconomy strategy depends not only on the current state and trends of its subsectors, but also on the drivers that will be forcing and shaping them in the future. The authors decomposed these drivers into global, European and national. Using content analysis of the EU, OECD and European countries' legal acts, global drivers such as depletion of natural resources, growing population, increasing environmental pressures and climate change were identified. Applying content analysis of the EU and European countries' bioeconomy strategies and analysis of case studies of good practices in European countries and regions, the following drivers at European level were identified: common EU bioeconomy policy, strategy and action plan; assurance of biomass availability and sustainability, as well as efficient biomass value chain; the need to strengthen markets and competitiveness of the bioeconomy subsectors; the necessity of close cooperation among all stakeholders, namely politicians, business people, scientists and the public; the need of the development of new technologies and processes, especially industrial biotechnology. The research revealed that the bioeconomy development in Lithuania has been regulated and promoted through certain sectoral policies: agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy, environment (including waste management), scientific research, innovation and biotechnology development. In the future, the cross-sectoral links and interactions in the Lithuanian bioeconomy will increase due to the scarce biomass, applying the cascading principle in the biomass refinement, transition towards circular economy, and the development and implementation of innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green economy, green growth and sustainable development are currently very often used terms. There are many international organizations intensively involved in the field of green growth and sustainable development. Green growth, according to the OECD, is a way how to support economic growth and development, while protecting natural resources, so that we could continue to use the natural resources and environmental services, on which our prosperity depends. One of its aims, especially in developed countries, is green economy building and ensuring social and economic sustainable development. However, it is not always clear how to build a green economy or achieve social and economic activities in the sense of sustainable development. The European Union is a cluster of relatively homogeneous countries, based on similar social and economic development. Ensuring green growth and sustainable development should be a common, coordinated and targeted activity of all European Union countries. The main aim of the paper is to evaluate green growth and sustainable development in the European Union countries using the selected indicators of green growth and selected indicators of sustainable development, including assessment of interregional disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the main trends of influence of global environment risks on economic development and identifies preferred directions of international cooperation in the field of sustainable development. Economic development is based on three factors: human capital, artificial production facilities, natural resources. In recent decades, natural factor becomes more limited. In 1970s, fundamentally new development concept became necessary due to environmental problem aggravation. Modern social and economic development is technogenic, i.e. nature-intensive, based on artificial production facilities manufactured without due regard to the environmental limits. Technogenic development is characterized by quick depletion of non-renewable resources (mineral resources) and excessive exploitation of renewable resources (soil, wood, etc.), which are unable to be restored in time. National resource degradation and environmental pollution result in substantial economic loss [1, 2]. Technogenic economic development is characterized by significant externalities. In environmental management, these externalities are defined as negative environmental and economic consequences of economic activity, which aren't acknowledged by agents of this activity, because these consequences are predominantly global [3]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mission of development strategy of localities from the plain of Romania and the diversification of their functional profile relies on attracting sustainable economic activities, promotion of the quality services, expansion and modernization of infrastructures, renewal of public spaces, in a stimulating and prosperous living environment, equitable for all citizens. The locality taken under study is a multicultural urban pole, with a high standard of living, prosperous community with a dynamic economy, active in the field of culture, education, tourism and cross-border cooperation. Smart and sustainable development can only be achieved only in a stable social climate, cohesive and inclusive. The formulation of the strategic objective of development starts from the premise that, practically, in any field, the organizational factor is crucial for the success, influencing, in a significant way, the activities of other sectors. For a community, the development strategies must be constructed in such a way in order to include more variables, to be flexible and capable to adapt to changes that appears in society. They should maximize their strengths (strengths), to attenuate or even to eliminate their weaknesses, to detect the opportunities offered by the external environment and to diminish the risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]