The chemical industry is a particularly sensitive sector that very often works with toxic, harmful and dangerous substances. This paper offers insight into the corporate socially responsible (CSR) behaviour of a specific segment of the chemical industry—the production of fluorinated ski waxes. Perfluorinated compounds, which excel in water and fat stability and repellency, are nowadays considered as harmful to human health and nature. During 2020, the basic compound, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), will be banned, and finding its replacement will be a difficult task. So far, there are no alternatives in terms of environmentally friendly compounds that can maintain the desired properties of extreme ski glide. Based on a questionnaire distributed to twenty wax producers worldwide, we have concluded that, although the attitudes of companies towards CSR certification was rather negative (87.5%), and companies had not developed or documented any CSR policy/strategy with specific goals, they found CSR activities/instruments beneficial and important. The survey highlighted the fact that companies were aware that their products are dangerous for the environment, and that environmental issues are important for all of the responders, despite them being mostly without certified systems. The size of a company had no significant effect on their attitude. Micro and small producers were involved in raising awareness of environmental policies and responsibilities to the same extent (maybe even more) as medium or large companies. We also found varying behaviours between companies involved in environmental programs and those who were not. The companies involved felt a strong attitude towards all three pillars of CSR, which are the environment, as well as social and economic aspects. Those companies not involved had a strong attitude towards their customers, but not towards their employees, suppliers or the wider community. They also had stronger feelings about the quality of their products and economic profit, but without a strong approach to the related environmental issues. The Norwegian approach and the commitment of the company Swix to CSR are two positive examples leading to a fluorine-free future.
Within the next few years, Europe’s economic paradigm will change fundamentally. Its manufacturing base will continue to shrink, and therefore future growth and social welfare will rely increasingly on knowledge-intensive industries and services, and ever more jobs will require a higher education qualification. Human resources are a core determinant of quality in higher education and research. Universities must therefore work to enhance their human potential, both qualitatively and quantitatively, by attracting, developing and keeping talent in teaching/research careers. Excellence may only emerge from a favourable professional environment based in particular on open, transparent and competitive procedures. Research and development (R&D) has proven to be a crucial factor in shifting the world’s technological frontiers, while at the same time facilitating new technological and scientific innovations. This paper will focus on R&D at the Institute for Nanomaterials, Advanced Technologies and Innovation at the Technical University of Liberec, Czech Republic. After a description of a literary search in the introduction, the specific real situation at this institute is mentioned, i.e. the number of submitted and solved national and international projects, statistics on research and development sources, and of course human resources at the institute. In the conclusion, the reader will be able to get a picture of how to increase the institute competitiveness in international collaboration.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the regional problems of the Kingdom of Sweden at the beginning of the 21st century and to confront these findings with the regional policy of the Czech Republic. In the introduction the basic issues of Swedish regional development will be presented. In the text the tax issues will also be outlined, i.e. the system of taxes redistribution to the regional and local authorities in our republic and in Sweden. In the text a case study of regional association of "Western Sweden" follows (West Sweden the EU Project Analysis Service-WEPA). This association has established in Brussels its permanent representation and it promotes here the interests of individual cities and regionsfor now only of mentioned "Western Sweden", which is not a municipal Swedish region, just the association composed of three Swedish regions (Halland, Värmland and Västra Götaland) and 71 cities. In the paper current practice and principles are documented, and the question remains: Is it possible to use this model of "Western Sweden" also in the Czech Republic? This article was created within the research project "Innovation Approach to Analysis of Disparities on Regional Level", realized under the state subsidy of The Ministry for
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