On the 30 November 2022 there was a panel discussion on sustainability entitled:„IS IT WORTH BEING SUSTAINABLE?”
The moderator of the meeting was Prof. dr. Ligita Šimanskienė.
Main theme:
The today’s dilemma of the world, mostly governed by economic powers, lies in the following: at what scope sustainable business could be adequately analyzed. It should be noted that economic development orientations and concepts, valid in the previous century, cannot satisfy the humanity’s needs and they have only a limited application spectrum in environmental protection studies. The situation supposes the necessity to propose new approaches and to define the essence of economic theory, its potential role and tasks, in solving issues related to critical human existence and civilization survival in the future. The basic idea of sustainable development is a firm understanding that all resources, renewable as well as non-renewable, are limited. How much do we really participate in the circular economy? Are we responsible consumers? How is green thinking changing in business, or maybe only “greenwashing”?
PANELISTS:
Circular economy. Lect. Henrika Ruginė
Circular economy (CE) has become quite an important topic nowadays: moving towards sustainability and implementing the EU Green Deal. Although this is not a brand-new concept in economics, principles of CE are appearing slowly in various countries. To start CE, there must be many changes that should appear in the governing documents, in business models and consumer’s way of thinking. To be able to make changes, we have to find out what is the situation now with CE principles perception in society and its implementation in various countries. How many companies used cirular economy principles?
Sustainable and renewable fuel in transport sector. Assoc.prof.dr.Aurimas Župerka
Liquefied biogas (LBG) – also known as liquefied biomethane and bio-LNG – is a 100% renewable fuel that can reduce CO2 emissions over its life cycle by up to 90% compared to conventional fuel. The use of LBG emits close to zero oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and sulfur oxides (SOx), and no particulate matter (PM). As a fuel, LBG is interchangeable with LNG, as they both consist mainly of methane (CH4). This means that the two gases can be mixed. Since biogas utilizes the same gas infrastructure as natural gas, switching to biogas is both easy and cost effective. Using both LNG and LBG is one of the concrete actions that will take us towards a low-carbon society of the future. Burning LBG releases only carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) into the air. This is our future or just experimentation?
Responsible consumption. Assoc.prof.dr. Jurgita Paužuolienė
Food waste prevention is part of the EU’s plan for a circular economy, which the European Commission defines as where “the value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible, and the generation of waste is minimised.” The transition is intended to improve global competitiveness, encourage sustainable growth, and create new jobs. Responsible consumption can be described as the behaviours and attitudes of the consumers to consume or less consume products and services that have the potential to directly or indirectly harm to society, economy, the world, and all living and non-living things. Are we responsible consumers?
„Greenwashing“ Lect.Darius Burgis
With the global environmental challenges appearing more and more obvious to the vast amount of consumers it is harder and harder for the companies to ignore the need for sustainable development. Even though we could see the gradual shift to more environmentally friendly products and services, we could also see the rise of “greenwashing” practices. According to Pizzeti et. al. (2021) this is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization’s products, aims and policies are environmentally friendly. This practise does harm to the whole sustainable development agenda, as it casts shadow on truly socially responsible companies as well, it erodes trust among the customers and creates the atmosphere of hopelessness. It very well might be so, that the future will be full of “green” companies, but the world will not be green at all.
