Human life on Earth is not sustainable, we consume and produce more than the planet can replenish. Despite the fact that we are not an advocacy organization we support ‘Green’ ideology: A ‘Green economy’ beyond green jobs, investment and production that is also fair distribution of resources and sufficiency, and taking into account social and biophysical limits to economic growth.
Our concrete activities with regards to resource efficiency are assessments of sustainable production and consumption (for the UN and the EU we are analyzing data and trends in Europe), renewable energy (visualizing global trends and working on local solutions in the Balkans) as well as energy in general (working on a vital graphics of nuclear energy package).
Zoï Books are produced for the United Nations, the European Union, regions, countries and a growing community of readers world-wide. We closely cooperate with GRID-Arendal in providing environmental information for decision-making.
Our digital library is available here.
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In the framework of the "Access2Mountain" project on Sustainable Mobility and Tourism in Sensitive Areas of the Alps and the Carpathians, Zoi has prepared a study on traffic flows and possible solutions in Eastern Serbia (Timok region) for the European Academy Bolzano (EURAC). The study describes the overall geographic, environmental, transport and tourism setting of the region, based on policy documents and data collected from national, district and local level sources in Serbia. The study analyses existing and potential capacities and deficiencies of transport related to tourism in the Timok region, and proposes alternatives for the future.
Today, environmental crimes amount to more than $100 billion a year. Those high-profit, low-risk crimes are destroying ecosystems, dramatically impacting on climate change and devastating local economies. Nevertheless, they are extremely hard to fight as they are constantly hidden within legal Environmental crimes are not soft crimes. They often occur in countries with a high rate of corruption involving violence and impacting directly on the poorest population. Environmental crimes take full advantage of the financial opacity (tax havens, e.g.) and the weakness of the worldwide transportation system trade, take advantage of tax havens and are mostly controlled by huge criminal organizations such as mafias or illegitimate firms. This brochure provides an overview of the situation, identifies some of the most important points and suggests ways to fight against this global threat.
The United Nations Environment Programme 2011–2013 strategy focuses on six thematic priorities – climate change; resource efficiency; disasters and conflicts; environmental governance; harmful substances and hazardous waste; and ecosystem management. As part of its effort to come to terms with these priorities, UNEP engaged Zoï to create thematic maps for use as objective tools for priority setting in the European region.
In September 2009 the United Nations Environment Management Group agreed to establish an Issue Management Group on Green Economy. This group was tasked to prepare a report to assess how the United Nations system could coherently support countries in transitioning to a green economy. The report is expected to facilitate a common understanding of the green economy approach and the measures required for the transition. The report is also envisioned to contribute to the preparatory process for the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20) where “the green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication” is one of the two themes; the other is “the institutional framework for sustainable development”.
This report was produced within the framework of Assessment and Capacity-Building for Managing Environment and Security Risks in Donbas and Salihorsk regions, a UNEP-led ENVSEC project implemented in Ukraine and Belarus to address environmental risk from hazardous activities, and improve environmental management and awareness. Project activities included technical assessments, training and analysis of mining sites, but also workshops and training sessions for journalists to build up their communication skills on environmental topics relevant to their region. This publication presents the findings and results of both parts of the project.