Ongoing Research Projects
Urban Environmental Indicators in support of Sustainable Public Policies
(2021 - Current)
The urbanization process in Brazilian cities reflects unsustainability, generating hypertrophy in the use of natural resources, environmental degradation and social inequality. From this context emerges the need to recover sustainability and quality of life in urban centers. Therefore, it is necessary to generate environmental information that allows the monitoring of urban phenomena based on a set of evidence. From these considerations a challenge arises: what to measure and how to measure it. The present study will use a qualitative and bibliographic methodology; an attempt will be made to discuss whether the indicators are sufficient, comprehensive, reliable and to verify if they meet the necessary conditions for the assessment of environmental management in cities. The research proposes to examine the adherence of the theoretical basis to the implemented sustainable urban public policies and to detail how to measure the quality of the environment.
Management and Sustainability
(2020 - Current)
Management and sustainability Management and sustainability, until the last century, were considered distant and even antagonistic concepts. The management concept was related to the financial and economic result. The important thing was to remunerate the factors of production and, especially, capital. At the end of the 20th century, these concepts came closer, especially since environmental sustainability stopped being something strange and linked only to ecologists, and became part of the image and marketing of organizations, whether public or private. From then on, management needed to be sustainable on its different fronts (environmental, social and economic), and sustainability, to be effective, needed to be managed. Now, with this, organizations started to bring these two concepts closer together, touching and influencing each other. Environmental sustainability, which is pursued by organizations today, is now part of all production stages of organizations. From development, organizational products, passing through their processing, whether tangible or not, to their commercialization and disposal need to be environmentally sustainable. An example of this is what happens today in the European Community, in the vehicle sector. There, they are designed and manufactured thinking about how to separate their parts in the post-use phase, as well as their recycling and reuse. In other words: reverse logistics is already part of the design of the product itself, its design and its manufacture. Therefore, sustainability today has a frontier in continuous expansion movement. Sustainability has already incorporated concepts that, not long ago, were distant and almost isolated, such as: reverse logistics, circular economy and products and smart cities. A fundamental question, when thinking about sustainability, is the role of different social actors in the construction of this sustainable society. At least three actors need to be an active part of this construction. They are: the State and its governments; organizations, whether public or private; and the community, made up of different groups. Sustainable management of electronic waste in the capitals of the southern region of Brazil Inserting the concept of sustainability into organizations implies rethinking the production process, from product design to disposal. Thus, proposals such as reverse logistics and circular economy emerged. However, it must also be practiced by the State and society; it is known that irregular disposal of electronic waste can result in heavy metal contamination of the environment. The question that guides the research is: how is the production of electronic waste in the capitals of the southern region of Brazil? With the general objective of analyzing the production of electronic waste in the capitals of the southern region of Brazil, the exploratory study seeks to identify materials used, map the reverse logistics flows and describe the legal framework for disposal in order to then propose alternative legislation and processes, and a model for measuring the maturity of organizations in the management of electronic waste disposal.
Members: Celmar Corrêa de Oliveira - Coordinator / Carlos Honorato - Member / Cristina Albrecht - Member / Marc François Richter - Member.
Impacts of COVID-19 on the displacement of university students in Rio Grande do Sul
(2020 - Current)
Contamination by COVID-19 has become the biggest concern today, and to contain it, governments have established, among other measures, social distancing, in some places quarantine or social isolation. The changes adopted in individual behavior are crucial to controlling the spread of COVID-19 and bring up issues such as control and freedom of action, especially in the use of public space for circulation, since the objective is, with social isolation, restrict the mobility and permanence of people in public environments, such as roads, parks, squares, sidewalks, in public transport, such as buses, trains, subways, ferries, etc. The Higher Education Institutions, committed to collaborating to contain the spread of COVID-19, since students are vectors of transmission of COVID-19 to their families and the community in general, determined the suspension of on-site teaching activities still in March, as well as research and extension activities, which could pose some risk of contagion for students, as well as internships. In just over three weeks, around 8 million students, 2 million of which only in public education institutions (INEP, 2020) had their in-person activities canceled. In Rio Grande do Sul the number of university students is approximately 250 thousand, distributed between public and private universities. This study will seek to investigate the impact of measures taken to stop contamination by COVID-19 in the lives of university students: how they are noticing these changes in their lives and how they are changing the choices made in the transport area, which in turn, are impacting the mobility of cities. For this, it will be investigated how the daily displacements are taking place, if some have ceased to exist, if schedules, routes, activities, meetings, meetings, work, forms, means, etc. have been modified. The survey is expected to be carried out through the application of a questionnaire, online. Respondents will be contacted via e-mail sent to the electronic addresses of the databases provided by the twenty IEs participating in the project. Confirmation of the participation of students in answering the questionnaire will be obtained by accepting the Informed Consent Form (FICF), and participants will be instructed on the form they will be submitted to. In this way, participants will be guaranteed anonymity, confidentiality of information and the right to withdraw from participation without any type of prejudice or sanction. The project will be submitted to the Research Ethics Committees of each of the twenty participating IEs through registration as a Multicenter Study in Plataforma Brasil to cover all IEs. The database generated as a result of the research will be owned by the project proponent. She will be responsible for carrying out, together with researchers from other participating IEs, the analyzes relevant to the project's objective. It should be noted that the project has the participation of 39 researchers from different Higher IE in Rio Grande do Sul.
Members: Celmar Corrêa de Oliveira - Member / Carla Garcia Bottega - Member / Clara Natália Steigleder - Member / Raquel Holz - Coordinator.
Challenges and demands of the implementation of Sustainable Tenders in the State Public Administration
(2019 - Current)
The research has as general objective to verify if the State Executive Power uses environmental criteria to carry out the acquisition of goods and services, it also proposes to investigate whether Uergs performs sustainable practices in tenders, and to propose guidelines for this modality to be effective in the different agencies of the state public sphere. Method: The focus of the analysis will be the works related to the theme of Sustainable Public Procurement and the Public Notices/Terms of Reference, prepared by the Bidding Center of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (CELIC) and by the State University of Rio Grande do Sul (Uergs ). In order to understand the purchasing routines and flows of the participating institutions, interviews and a questionnaire will be carried out with managers. The questionnaire will consider assumptions of the semi-structured research, containing a closed part for the survey of a brief profile on agents who carry out purchases and their training; and an open part, with questions referring to the processes of public procurement and sustainability, according to the purposes of the survey. The expectation is that the results of this research will allow the creation of a set of guidelines that can be used by the various state public bodies, aiming at the adoption of environmental criteria and sustainable policies in public procurement. This practice lacks adequate protocols that consolidate a current and contextualized theoretical basis, aiming at sustainable development.
Members: Celmar Corrêa de Oliveira - Coordinator / Paulo Roberto de Oliveira Bastos - Member
Application of federal law 12651/12: recovery of permanent water preservation areas, based on the size of rural properties and their implications for public environmental policies.
(2019 - Current)
Analyze the potential application of the rules of law 12651/2012 in the conservation and restoration of permanent water preservation areas (APP's) in the Guaíba Hydrographic Region, RS; Measure the permanent water preservation areas (APP's) to be recovered according to the size of rural properties in the Guaíba Hydrographic Region; Furthermore, it proposes environmental public policy actions aimed at creating instruments that aim to encourage the recovery of vegetation in areas of permanent water preservation.
Members: Celmar Corrêa de Oliveira - Coordinator / Silvano G. Martens - Member.
Ongoing Extension Projects
Dissemination by the Research Group: Policies, Public Management and Development, via online and holding events to raise awareness about sustainable public management
(2021 - Current)
The website of the Research Group: Policies, Public Management and Development (GP-PGPD) of Uergs, was launched and started its activities in December 2020. The idea is to publicize the activities of the research group with the university's internal body (students, professors and employees), as well as public managers, external students and professors and the community in general. The extension project aims to feed this page with information about the activities of the research group, in addition to regularly posting news in the area of quality public management and sustainable regional development. The existing page on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will also be fed. In addition, 3 (three) online events (webinars) will be held on the Research Group's Facebook page: Policies, Public Management and Development, in which the following topics will be debated: environmental, aquatic and adventure tourism in the Vale do Taquari; rural and sustainable tourism; organic food, among other matters.
3rd Cycle of Debates on the Tragedy of the Commons and 1st National Seminar on the Government of the Commons
(2020 - Current)
In allusion to the 50th anniversary of the publication of the essay "The Tragedy of the Commons" by Garrett Hardin in Science, in 2018, the first event called "The Tragedy of the Commons Today: Its Legacy in Public Policy Development" was held. In the second event, "Tragedy of the Commons or Non-Commons", held in 2019, debates on the contributions of Hardin and Östrom to public policies were resumed, focusing on two areas that have constituted us for the qualified offer of public services related to the following urban policies: solid waste and urban mobility. For 2020, a project is planned that consists of improving the debate on the themes of the two previous editions, addressing the theme "Sustainable Cities" with a broader event and through a cycle of lectures and submission of papers in an expanded summary format. In previous years, the following themes were addressed: solid waste, circular economy, regional and sustainable development, technologies and urban mobility. Continuing, this year, which will be the third year of the Tragedy of the Commons project, will initially address issues pertaining to cities and sustainable public policies. These themes were chosen due to the current political, economic and social scenario that Latin America is experiencing as a whole. The dissatisfactions and urban manifestations that occurred at the end of this decade on the continent show that there are social, political and economic problems that have not been resolved, or that have been resolved in an unsatisfactory or insufficient way. Discussing these issues and raising alternatives, as well as evaluating their potential, is an urgent and necessary issue. When discussing these issues, using the Tragedy of the Commons and the Government of the Commons as a guide, an alternative is examined, especially given the climate of radicalism and quasi-fundamentalism on the part of those who should lead the process of reconstitution of Latin American governments.
Members: Celmar Corrêa de Oliveira - Coordinator / Carlos Honorato - Member / Patrícia Binkowski - Member / Cristina Albrecht - Member.
