Growing the Green Giant: Ecological Threats, Political Threats, and U.S. Membership in Sierra Club, 1892-Present

A growing body of research examines questions related to the emergence of environmental organizations and the growth of the environmental organizational field in the United States, but we need to know more about why particular environmental organizations grow or decline in terms of membership size over time. In this article, we draw on both qualitative and quantitative data to assess factors contributing to the growth of the Sierra Club, one of the United States’ oldest and largest environmental organizations. First, through an analytic narrative that synthesizes insights from secondary accounts of the history of the Sierra Club, we identify a variety of ecological and political threats that have led to growth in the Sierra Club from its founding in 1892 to the present day. Then, through time-series analyses of quantitative data, we show that two particular types of environmental and political threats—growth in carbon dioxide emissions and the presence of Republican Presidents—have led to growth in the Sierra Club from 1960 (when it began mass recruitment of members) to 2016. We contextualize these findings within the broader social scientific literature on neoliberalism and its consequences for environmental degradation and environmental mobilization. Overall, our findings provide support for threat-based models of mobilization and hold significant implications for research on environmental organizations.

The Role of International Organizations in Maintaining Environmental Security

The conducted research aims to determine the role of international organizations in the field of maintaining environmental safety. It is concluded that the relevance of the activities of international environmental organizations, governmental and non-governmental, both individually and collectively, make an important contribution to the processes of ensuring and maintaining environmental safety throughout the world, showing the need to disseminate environmental education, invest in environmental projects, increase society’s involvement in cooperation at the national and international levels, update scientific theoretical and practical research, and preserve natural heritage for future generations.

Growing the Green Giant: Ecological Threats, Political Threats, and U.S. Membership in Sierra Club, 1892–Present

A growing body of research examines questions related to the emergence of environmental organizations and the growth of the environmental organizational field in the United States, but we need to know more about why particular environmental organizations grow or decline in terms of membership size over time. In this article, we draw on both qualitative and quantitative data to assess factors contributing to the growth of the Sierra Club, one of the United States’ oldest and largest environmental organizations. First, through an analytic narrative that synthesizes insights from secondary accounts of the history of the Sierra Club, we identify a variety of ecological and political threats that have led to growth in the Sierra Club from its founding in 1892 to the present day. Then, through time-series analyses of quantitative data, we show that two particular types of environmental and political threats—growth in carbon dioxide emissions and the presence of Republican Presidents—have led to growth in the Sierra Club from 1960 (when it began mass recruitment of members) to 2016. We contextualize these findings within the broader social scientific literature on neoliberalism and its consequences for environmental degradation and environmental mobilization. Overall, our findings provide support for threat-based models of mobilization and hold significant implications for research on environmental organizations.

The Transparency Challenge in Environmental Organizations: Factors Influencing Whether Institutions Collect and Reveal Diversity Data

In recent years, diversity advocates have organized a national campaign aimed to get environmental organizations to reveal data on the demographic characteristics of their institutions publicly. Environmental organizations are urged to be more transparent and put their data on GuideStar (renamed Candid). Past research indicates that as of 2018, less than 4% of the organizations have done so. Still diversity and transparency campaigns focus on the disclosure of data on Candid. Despite the push to get environmental nonprofits to disclose their demographic data, scholars and diversity advocates have not investigated if and how organizations are collecting and revealing demographic and other types of diversity data. This article addresses this gap in our knowledge about the collection and disclosure of diversity data by environmental institutions. The article reports the findings of a national study of 516 environmental organizations that analyze the following questions: (a) To what extent do environmental nonprofits collect diversity data? (b) What kinds of diversity data do organizations collect? (c) Why do organizations collect or refrain from collecting diversity data? (d) Where do organizations disclose their diversity data if they collect any? The data reported here was collected in 2018. The study assessed if organizations collected data on 12 different diversity metrics. The study found that 31.4% of the nonprofits collected or tracked data on at least one metric. The nonprofits are also more likely collect data than to divulge them. That is, 25.8% of the organizations said they shared data on at least one diversity metric. The results show that a much higher percent of organizations collect and reveal data than are currently disclosing such data on Candid. The research also found that organizations are more likely to collect data on their boards than on their staff and the nonprofits are more likely to share diversity data with funders and their boards than any other kinds of external or internal sources. The findings suggest that in crafting diversity and transparency campaigns, more attention should be paid to the kinds of data that organizations do collect, as well as where and how they reveal such data.

Bełchatów 2030: alternatywne scenariusze transformacji

Bełchatów 2030: The Altenative Scenarios of the Transformation The article presents strategic dilemmas of the Bełchatów mining and energy complex. The coal lobby aims to continue the conventional profile by launching a new open pit in Złoczew, and experts from environmental organizations propose to enter the green investment trend. A responsible strategy for the survival of the Bełchatów energy complex as an employer must assume alternative scenarios.

Sustainability and Potato Consumption

This paper analyses the frequency of the consumption of table potatoes in Norway. The analysis shows that the frequency of potato consumption is higher in older cohorts than in younger, and it declines over the life cycle. This indicates that the total consumption will continue to decrease as older potato eating cohorts are replaced with younger cohorts who eat potatoes less frequently. This is bad for food security, it is bad for nutritional health and it is bad for the environment. It is argued that nutritional and environmental organizations should work together to increase the status of the potato.

Conflicts in Environmental and Agricultural Organizations in the Far North Region of Cameroon

The population of the Far North Region of Cameroon suffers the most from poverty and huge environmental challenges. As a result, they have the highest concentration of environmental organizations in Cameroon. Data was collected by interviewing key informants who work in environmental and agricultural companies. It was discovered that conflicts in such organizations are caused by the differences people have in terms of opinions, interests and needs as they work together with each other. Their strictness with one another also causes conflict especially when doing dirty or difficult work tasks. Conflict also comes about when the religious values of each other is not respected especially that of the Muslims in Christians dominated companies. There is also generational conflict which is characterized by the confrontation between the older and less educated generation who have some experience and young graduates who would like to implement new practices. Other causes are discrimination where workers are not promoted basing on merit but on their ethnic relation to one another. There is equally an economic cause which is due to the non-distribution of part of the substantial profits that some companies make to their employees as well as too low salary and poor work tasks distribution.

The impact of board and hotel characteristics on biodiversity reporting: market diversification as a moderator

Purpose This study aims to explain how board and hotel characteristics affect biodiversity reporting and to test the moderating effect of market diversification. Design/methodology/approach The annual reports of 105 hotels were examined for the period between 2016 and 2017 to analyse these hotels’ biodiversity reporting using content analysis. The partial least squares technique was used to test the proposed relationships. Findings The results show that the number of board members who are also on the corporate social responsibility committee, number of board members who are in environmental organizations, the star rating of the hotel, hotel size and hotel location have significant positive effects on the extent of biodiversity reporting. In addition, market diversification moderates positively the effects of number of board members with environmental experience and number of board members from environmental organizations on the extent of biodiversity reporting. Practical implications The results of this study will be useful in enabling hotel manager and investors to become knowledgeable about these aspects of boards, which lead to higher biodiversity reporting. This study can also inform policymakers about the types of hotels that are less likely to disclose biodiversity reports and to develop effective enforcement of regulations. Originality/value These findings extend the literature on biodiversity reporting by exploring the importance of board and hotel characteristics on the extent of biodiversity reporting and testing the moderating effect of market diversification.