Aggressions of the Socio-Economic System on the Natural Capital

Nearly 250 million years ago, the Earth was shaken by the amplest extinction known so far, which led to the extinction of up to 96% of all the marine species, 70% of the vertebrate species, and almost all the insects. This extinction affected the whole range of biodiversity so much. Nature took almost 10 million years to recover after this event. Life was really in danger on our planet at that moment, due to the dismal conditions that were created, and the current research shows that these dire conditions continued to occur, in the natural environment, after that, triggering numerous outbreaks that occurred for five to six million years following the initial crisis, triggered by the carbon rise and the repeated shortages of oxygen, the increased warming and other such adverse effects, which, once initiated, were uncontrollable and had disastrous effects. When life returned to normal and, gradually, after several million years, a new beginning was possible, the significant elements that caused the disaster - global warming, acid rain - sound strangely familiar to us today.

Green Performance Strategies in Romanian Economy in the View of EU 2020 Strategy

This chapter aimed to investigate green performance strategies in the Romanian economy. In the first part, authors exposed specific definitions and concepts related to the green economy, as they appear in the literature in the field. The European context and the main ways of implementation of the green economy are presented as they result from the objectives of The Agenda 2020 UE and The Agenda 2030 UNO. Green Performance in Romania during 2010-2014 is assessed by analyzing the environmental protection expenditures, environmental taxes, greenhouse gasses emissions, green jobs roles, and Environmental Performance Index. The sustainable economic growth effects are materializing in a major growth of the ecological productivity, an increased amount of energy derived from renewable sources, emissions reduction, improved air and water quality, widened access to the benefits of civilization - education, water sanitation. Thus, this green growth “can fight” against climate change. Also, green growth provides opportunities for creating new jobs requiring new skills.

The Management of the Socio-Economic System

The appearance of the concept of sustainable development, although a sort of universal remedy at its beginnings, is becoming increasingly frequently the object of tensions both as objectives but especially as content. Regarding its objectives, the debate is organized around a logic based on the theory of the stakeholders but also on the competing logic that mobilizes an ethics of responsibility as teleological principle. Consequently, the meanings and implicitly the programmes of sustainable development are also the object of certain controversies and remain susceptible of being solved by a process of normalization of their contents. However, this dynamics of normalization itself is the bearer of certain “perverse effects”, already noticed in the accountancy standards domain and, under these circumstances, this dynamics of normalization cannot pretend to be the solution for regulating these controversies. The problem are mainly the weak doctrinal points characterizing Sustainable Development today, obviously, by comparison to what it wanted to be.

Green Investments and Food Security

Green investments are the perfect tool to generate complex self-regenerating systems in order to achieve a sustainable development. Even if the burden of transition from high polluting economy to a green economy is high, the cost should be split among all that have interest in achieving this goal. The switch to green is an international current that will ultimately force the change if it is not made willingly. All parties have an interest to promote change before the change gets them on the wrong foot. In this regard, the chapter aims to emphasizing the potential benefits of the transition to a green economy in terms of reducing poverty, enhancing food security, nutrition and health on a sustainable basis while promoting ecosystem stability. Thus, increased green investments throughout the food system are imperatively needed so that changing the way food is obtained could become a powerful force for sustainable development.

Sustainable Development in Manufacturing Systems

This chapter discusses sustainable development (SD) planning in manufacturing facilities. The industrial sector uses half of the world's energy, and manufacturing, as the core of this sector, contributes significantly to energy consumption and environmental footprints. In this chapter, in the first step, energy consumption, as one of the main factors influencing SD in manufacturing, is analyzed from different perspectives, and its impact on SD is studied. Thereafter, several energy-aware operations management approaches are proposed. These approaches integrate energy consumption into classic production planning and scheduling decisions. In the second step, a generic sustainability-based decision-making framework is proposed for maintenance strategy selection problem, considering three pillars of sustainability. For this purpose, various indicators are proposed for each sustainability factor that has an impact on maintenance planning decisions. The maintenance strategy alternatives are evaluated for each indicator and the best alternative is selected using a decision-making method.

The Role of Forest Ecosystems in the Economy of the Rural Area

We have presented the forest as an ecosystem, the socio-economic development of the forest ecosystems in the rural area and the sustainable management of the forest as an ecosystem. The debate on the public assets of the forests and on climate change will nourish the discussions related to the future form of the Common Agricultural Policy at a moment when the European Union is preparing its new forest strategy. A new sustainable rural development policy will need to rely on a strong will, based on the support of the States for the most disinherited rural areas in point of location, accessibility, economic development and services for the population. “The rural world” represents an opportunity for our country (until 2020); we only need to want to take advantage of these resources for a more sustainable development.

Reducing Poverty and Sustaining Growth

Microfinance institutions have been effective rural banking channels that extended financial services to low-income individuals, particularly women in developing country settings. Since its inception, microfinance has evolved as an economic development approach and has grown to enormous scale in Bangladesh, with a reported approximate 23 million borrowers in a country of roughly 150 million people. These numbers reveal the highest population saturation of microfinance in any country. However, with the maturity of the microfinance market in recent years, competition has subsequently increased among various financial and non-financial institutions. Against this backdrop of intense competition, this chapter aims to focus on the current institutions of Bangladesh that has made the microfinance service almost a sole option for the downtrodden segment of the low-income society. In particular, various approaches of microfinance and its operational structure by these institutions including the challenges and attributions of a dynamic micro credit concept will be highlighted.

Green Investments and Returns

A vital issue that must be considered by all functional areas in recent times is green safety and sustainable ecological balance. To be part of this environment-friendly investment, even the banking sectors of the most environmentally affected countries in the world invest voluntarily in social and environmental activities that targets socially-responsive business and ethics in the form of green banking. Green banking mainly involves the environmental and social responsibility of banks in terms of the contribution they make towards ensuring sustainability of the environment and ecological system, through the wide range of financial products and services that they offer. This chapter will primarily focus on the present status of the banks in complying with the green banking policy to save the environment as well as to increase financial sustainability from the perspective of a developing country like Bangladesh.