Q01 - Sustainable DevelopmentReturn

Addressing the gap in regional sustainability monitoring in the EU, this study assesses the applicability of composite sustainability indicator families at the NUTS 2 level and de-velops a methodology for regional variants of the Human Development Index (HDI) family. Nine indicator families were systematically assessed against four applicability criteria: communicability, relationship to GDP, sustainability dimension coverage, and territorial applicability. The HDI family emerged as the only methodologically sound basis for the NUTS 2 sustainability assessments. Four regional indices (R-HDI, R-IHDI, R-GDI, and the planetary pressures-adjusted R-PHDI) were derived from Eurostat and EDGAR data and piloted on 84 NUTS 2 regions across six Central European countries (V4, Germany, Austria) for 2000–2024. Functional data analysis with global envelope tests confirmed that conclu-sions about convergence depend on indicator choice: statistically significant V4 vs DE+AT differences under R-HDI (p = 0,001) disappeared following environmental adjustment via R-PHDI (p = 0,487), with emission-intensive regions substantially penalised. The R-IHDI and R-GDI required methodological compromises owing to the absence of microdata at the NUTS 2 level. This study presents the first systematic derivation and empirical application of the full HDI family at EU NUTS 2 level.

The aim of this article is to provide theoretical information on the importance of local economy and factors that influence the development of local food systems, to describe current trends towards decentralization of food production and to bring best practices in supporting local food production. Local food production is represented by local farmers, small and medium-sized enterprises that produce local food using local natural, financial, and human resources. The development of local entrepreneurship provides benefits not only for local people but also for cities, regions, and the state. Supporting local entrepreneurship is important for food self-sufficiency and resilience in an area, especially to ensure a functional food chain for its inhabitants. In the past decade, the preference for local food among consumers has increased rapidly, mainly due to the quality and safety of good local food, the freshness, and the immediate availability of the local production. Sustainability, in the form of reducing negative environmental impacts, also plays a key role in supporting the development of local production. The high importance of self-sufficiency in the food supply chains has appeared during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues in the energy crisis during the autumn / winter of 2022. Resilient and sustainable local food systems can ensure relevant food security for the states and long-term occupation for the inhabitants that work in local production/or local food systems. Used methodology is a narrative review, that is summarizing the functions and importance of the actors of the local food system and its development. The review is supported by the qualitative research using method of the structured expert interviews. The objective of the qualitative research was to identify motivations and barriers to local entrepreneurship and to identify key areas of support. The findings suggest that appropriate legislative support to create local food systems, reduce administrative burdens and educate consumers could bring a number of benefits to the region, such as social, economic and environmental benefits, as well as consumer benefits in the form of fresh and quality locally produced food.

The amount of different types of waste around the world is growing every year. Especially a growing amount of food waste is in desperate need of better management practices. At the same time, European Union (EU) is striving for becoming the world's first climate-neutral continent which requires immediate solutions for issues like waste management, sustainable production, competitive resource-efficient business models, etc. For achieving these goals, business models fulfilling principles of circular bioeconomy are highly supported by the EU. One of such business models could be the rearing of Black Soldier Larvae (BSF) on various types of biowaste and their use for value-added products like animal feed, fertilizers, biofuel, cosmetic ingredients, etc. This study reviews adopted Bioeconomy strategies and investigates the state of the research and development in the field of BSF rearing through statistical analysis of the available scientific publications, published patents, and established companies in the EU and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Member states. The results show an exponential increase in all three indicators in the last decade.

Fair Trade is a business model whose basic idea and goal is greater fairness in international trade with the developing world. In particular, it offers fair trading conditions that do not exploit the grower but take into account his possibilities and production costs. It prides itself on the sustainability of trade and therefore supports environmental protection in the area. An integral part of this system is the involvement of businesses as intermediaries between producers and consumers. The companies enter business processes with a clear vision aimed at orienting themselves in the area of fair trading, while others consider this to be only an opportunity for visibility. For this reason, the idea of Fair Trade has its criticisms, and like all certifications, the Fairtrade have their shortcomings. Criticism is often based on ignorance of the thing or unrealistic ideas of "how it should be to make it work". At other times, criticism of the ethical concept overlaps with the rules of a particular certification, or it blames the system for misuse of the logo by some of the merchants. The article reveals some theoretical aspects and also deals with a selected sample of companies based on a quota selection from the set, which is part of the certification company Fairtrade Czechia and Slovakia. Based on the chosen methods, we answer the research question and the verified hypothesis.