Journal of Cleaner Production 26 (2012) 18e27

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Sustainable development in a transition economy: business case studies

from Poland
Jakub Kronenberg a, *, Tomasz Bergier b,1
a
b

University of Lodz, Department of International Economics, P.O.W. 3/5, 90-255 Lodz, Poland
AGH University of Science and Technology, Department of Environmental Management and Protection, Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakow, Poland

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 28 October 2010
Received in revised form
4 November 2011
Accepted 8 December 2011
Available online 16 December 2011

In general, examples from developed countries are cited when making reference to good practice in
sustainable development, while there is limited access to case studies from transition economies. Our
aim is to analyse case studies from Poland, which has recently undergone the transition to a marketbased economy, in order to identify and critically assess both the drivers of and barriers to sustainable
development in Polish business. By demonstrating that evidence of good practice is available within
Poland, we also aim to motivate key stakeholders to follow these examples in an addition to importing
practice from developed countries. Together the 11 case studies analysed in the article demonstrate that
while constraints exist to sustainable development there are nonetheless positive examples of best
practice from which to learn. This review therefore complements other studies conducted on sustainable
development in transition economies by indicating that lessons can be drawn on promoting sustainable
development within this context and in other similar states undergoing economic, political and social
transition.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Sustainable development
Drivers of sustainability
Barriers to sustainability
Corporate social responsibility
Transition economy
Poland

1. Introduction
Over the last two decades sustainable development has become
a worldwide discourse, driven by international agreements, global
environmental governance and bodies such as the European Union
(EU). However, practice varies signicantly between states, with
some performing better than others. Poland is widely perceived as
a country that performs poorly with regard to sustainable development or environmental protection, similar to other transition
economies. This is further strengthened by the fact that in Poland
discussions related to sustainable development most often invoke
foreign case studies. As a result, one may have an impression that
there is not much to talk about with reference to sustainable
development in Poland and that sustainable development is not
our problem but a problem of those countries from which the
discussed case studies originate. Meanwhile, the situation in Poland
is improving and there already are a number of interesting case
studies illustrating the drivers and barriers to sustainable development in the country. This resembles the situation depicted by our
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 48 42 635 53 53; fax: 48 42 633 08 57.
E-mail addresses: kronenbe@uni.lodz.pl (J. Kronenberg), tbergier@agh.edu.pl
(T. Bergier).
1
Tel.: 48 12 617 47 57; fax: 48 12 633 50 76.
0959-6526/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2011.12.010

famous Renaissance poet, Miko1aj Rej (1505e1569), who was the

rst one to start writing in Polish while others had only written in
Latin (translated by M.J. Mikos):
Among other nations let it always be known
That the Poles are not geese, have a tongue of their own.
In our view, using Polish case studies can help to promote
sustainable development in Poland further and to understand
better the drivers and barriers to sustainability. Case studies from
the same country or region are easier to replicate and thus more
useful for those who would like to use them in practice (Brown and
Angel, 2000). Finally, decision makers often perceive case studies as
more informative and convincing than formal models and thus
these two sources of information should be perceived as complementary (George and Bennett, 2005).
Using this perspective, our objective was to depict the state of
sustainable development in a country that has undergone a transition from a centrally planned to a market economy and to draw
recommendations for other countries that are still in this transition
process. In the following sections we rst review the literature in
search of the already identied drivers and barriers to sustainability in a transition economy to illustrate the context within
which Polish companies operate. Then we focus on Polish case
studies selected specically for this research project. The project

J. Kronenberg, T. Bergier / Journal of Cleaner Production 26 (2012) 18e27

was carried out under the auspices of the Sendzimir Foundation

that deals primarily with sustainability education in Poland and
other countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). To keep in line
with the main focus of this journal, we limit our review to case
studies that reect sustainability in business.
2. Literature review
The countries of CEE have received a great deal of attention in
the last 20 years as examples of the process of economic and social
transition (Lipton et al., 1990; Barr, 1994; Gros and Steinherr, 1995;
Columbus, 1998). Much attention has also been paid by academics
to the environmental dimension of this transformation
(Juergensmeyer et al., 1990; Alcamo, 1992; Carter and Turnock,
1993; Vari and Tamas, 1993; Klarer and Moldan, 1997; Tickle and
Welsh, 1998; Pavlnek and Pickles, 2000; Oldeld and Tickle,
2002; Scrieciu and Stringer, 2008). Within the publications cited
above, the focus has principally been on the severity of environmental problems and how they might be solved. Much less focus
has been made on sustainable development itself (Bolan and
Bochniarz, 1994; Bochniarz and Toft, 1995; OECD, 2004).
For the convenience of an international readership, we have
restricted this literature review to English language publications,
keeping in mind the multitude of other relevant publications,
available in Polish and other national languages. In doing so, we
have attempted to isolate the most important aspects and drivers of
sustainable development in Poland and other transition economies
that we are later able to contrast with the case studies.
Although since its accession to the EU in 2004 Poland is no
longer classied as a transition economy, it used to serve as a prime
example of this type of economy because of its size and the related
range of economic, social and environmental problems that were
experienced. Today, the experience of Poland is often presented as
potentially useful for other countries still on their path to transition,
such as the South and East European countries or those in the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Moreover, the potential to learn from Polish experience has also been cited in relation to
sustainable development (Koz1owski and Ha1adyj, 2006).
Although countries of CEE have many similarities with regard to
sustainability issues, they also differ, for example in terms of their
environmental impacts, with some notorious examples evident,
such as Belarus and the CIS countries in general (Costi, 1998;
Ichikawa et al., 2002; Kluvnkov-Oravsk et al., 2009). These
differences among the transition economies were partly a result of
their different histories and different approaches to their transformation. In the following analysis, we focus our attention on
Poland, keeping in mind that many features of the described
transition period have been shared by other countries of the region.
Abuse of the environment during the communist era (Scrieciu
and Stringer, 2008) and massive neglect during the transformation led to severe environmental problems (Kurek et al.,
2001). A good example was the so-called Black Triangle, once
a heavily polluted area on the Polish-German-Czech border characterized by chronic air and water pollution (Markert et al., 1996;
Ladysz, 2006). This negative industrial legacy was compounded
by inadequate environmental institutions which subsequently
needed redesigning in order to realize sustainable development
_
(Cummings, 1992; Zylicz,
1992; Bochniarz and Toft, 1995; Slocock
and Sowinski, 1996). In a sign of an institutional improvement, in
1997, the principle of sustainable development was incorporated
into the Polish Constitution (art. 5) and in 2000 the government
adopted its Sustainable Development Strategy Poland 2025 (GCSS/
MoE, 2000). However, in 2007 the document was repealed with the
aim to replace the strategy with a new one which would be fully
compatible with the EU requirements. To date, a new strategy has

19

yet to be created. This situation typies the many problems concerning achieving sustainable development in Poland. Although the
problems are being solved, at least partially, new problems emerge.
Additionally, the old ones often recur as many had not been solved
in a comprehensive manner.

2.1. Positive issues

Many of the old environmental problems were partly solved by
the economic transformation itself as the decline in industrial
activity reduced pollution, and the need to withstand competition
forced an increase in resource and energy efciency (Ichikawa
et al., 2002; Scrieciu and Stringer, 2008). The positive trends
were reinforced by relatively good environmental regulation
system that was presented as an example for other transition and
developing countries to follow (Brown and Angel, 2000; Brown
et al., 2000).
New nancial instruments for environmental protection were
_
developed during the transition period in Poland (Zylicz,
1995,
_
1999; Peszko and Zylicz,
1998), some of which have experienced
spectacular success, such as the Polish EcoFund (OECD, 1998, 2007;
Nowicki and Sitnicki, 2007). The EcoFund managed the Polish debtfor-nature swaps and has managed to raise over half a billion USD,
more than all other debt-for-nature swaps in the world put
together. Other sources of external funding were also available to
ease the pain of the transition period (Costi, 1998), including those
from the UN system and private donors. Economic openness in the
country resulted in foreign direct investment which often led to
replicating good practice developed in foreign markets in Poland
and helped to further restructure Polish companies. With this
regard, investors needed to pay attention to the environmental
aspects of privatization of Polish state-owned companies and the
related liabilities (Cummings, 1993; Kristiansen, 1996).
On the one hand, the transition process was facilitated by the
perspective of EU membership, the related pre-accession funding
and also pressure to comply with EU regulations (Tickle and Clarke,
2000; Ichikawa et al., 2002; Carmin and VanDeveer, 2005;
Kluvnkov-Oravsk et al., 2009; Tews, 2009). Indeed, as early as
when EU accession negotiations for Poland and several other CEE
countries started in 1997, the European Commission suggested that
the environment was an area where a special effort was required to
adopt the acquis communautaire (Costi, 1998). On the other hand, it
was occasionally noted that the EU itself might learn from the
experiences of its new member states, for example from the use of
certain nancial instruments for environmental protection
(Jehli
cka and Tickle, 2005).2
On the social side, it is also important to note that during the
communist period the protests against environmental problems
were often closely related to resistance against the old political
system (Matczak, 1999). In the 1990s in Poland, society was active
in protesting against municipal facilities, such as landlls or roads
(Matczak, 1999), however rather than relating to their environmental awareness, this related to the not-in-my-backyard
(NIMBY) syndrome. Attempts have been made to involve local
stakeholders
in
the
development
planning
processes
(Magnuszewski et al., 2005; Gorzelak et al., 2008) and in general,
regional and local sustainable development planning has gradually
become relatively more common (Grochowalska, 1998; Gorzelak

2
Conversely, EU pressure has also been accused of not being accustomed to the
particular conditions and possibilities of various countries, constituting a new
centralized regime (Scrieciu and Stringer, 2008) and it has not taken into consideration the opportunities to learn from and adapt the solutions developed in the
candidate countries (Christiansen and Tangen, 2002).

20

J. Kronenberg, T. Bergier / Journal of Cleaner Production 26 (2012) 18e27

et al., 2008). An important role in the transition to sustainability has

also been played by NGOs (Cent et al., 2007).
Much change has occurred thanks to the following of good
practice from developed countries (Line and Braun, 2007), sometimes through international support programmes and sometimes
thanks to the involvement of individuals who had gained experience in other countries. This took place primarily in the business
sector, in reference to concepts such as cleaner production
(Markowski, 1993; Nowak, 1994, 1996; Doniec et al., 2002;
Kronenberg and Clift, 2004), life cycle assessment (LCA) (Klos,
1999; Lewandowska and Foltynowicz, 2004; Kowalski et al.,
2007; Kulczycka, 2009; Kulczycka et al., 2011) and corporate
social responsibility (CSR) (Gasparski, 2005; Lewicka-Strza1ecka,
2006; Mielechow and Piskalski, 2009; Anam, 2010; Kronenberg
and Mieszkowicz, 2011). New trends have also occurred in reference to consumption patterns (Mrz, 2010), where imitating the
West brought both excessive consumption but also to some extent
a more responsible form of consumption.
Finally, it is worth noting that some of the solutions developed
during the communist era and in the early stages of transition were
also successful, notably with reference to nature protection
(Scrieciu and Stringer, 2008; Kluvnkov-Oravsk et al., 2009), but
also with reference to production (Gille, 2000; Grdzelishvili and
Sathre, 2007). Therefore, it would be a mistake to completely
reject the developments that took place during the previous
political system.
2.2. Potential unresolved problems
In spite of the positive factors identied above, some serious
problems related to sustainable development keep occurring in
Poland. Most notably those that involve nature protection and the
so-called environment or development dilemma, for example the
general discussion regarding the selection of Natura 2000 sites in
 ska-Jurczak and Cent, 2011). Various problems of
Poland (Grodzin
this kind, often involving companies as a side in a conict, have
been reported in the literature along with the attempts made to
_
solve them (Zylicz,
2000; Krolikowska et al., 2007; KluvnkovOravsk et al., 2009). Other notorious problems emerged with
regard to the quota for cod shing in the Baltic Sea that was being
disobeyed by Polish shermen (Kronenberg, 2010), and in relation
to the division of emission permits within the EU. With such an
approach to sustainable development and environmental policy,
Poland has often undertaken these activities only after being forced
to by EU rules (Kronenberg and Maliszewska, 2004; Kronenberg,
2007).
Problems have been blamed on an insufcient level of awareness of the rationale for and possibilities offered by sustainable
development among Poles and Polish decision makers. A poor use
of information instruments as part of environmental or sustainable
development policy has been sometimes explained by a lack of
demand for information which has resulted in poor environmental
awareness by citizens. As explained by Banas (2010): ignorance of
the value of information is the most likely factor inuencing the
information ow on both sides.
Structural changes during the transition period have also led to
serious social consequences, in particular those related to unemployment and social exclusion of marginalized groups within
society. These issues were also related to the poor quality of social
capital in Poland. Deterioration of social capital that took place
during the communist period, and of trust in particular (Danchev,
2005; Bielski, 2010), has been another barrier to sustainable
development. For example, this makes it difcult for NGOs to
become involved in solving various problems as state agencies
avoid dialogue and citizens often do not trust either the authorities

or NGOs (Kluvnkov-Oravsk et al., 2009; Tews, 2009; Bielski,

2010). Similar complications, including poor institutions, social
problems resulting in a difcult situation in the job market and the
relative weakness of NGOs, have also created barriers to the
development of CSR in Poland (Lewicka-Strza1ecka, 2006; Line and
Braun, 2007).
Moreover, while the old environmental problems were being
solved, new problems appeared, such as increased consumption
levels and the related pressure on the environment, including
increased waste production and car trafc (Pavlnek and Pickles,
2005; Scrieciu and Stringer, 2008). Clearly, basic needs had to be
satised before people were able to start thinking about other
issues, such as the environment (Costi, 1998). This phenomenon is
broadly known as the environmental Kuznets curve (Archibald
et al., 2009), also relevant in the broader case of sustainability. It
offers an useful explanation of the path of development in postcommunist countries in which the sudden collapse of the
previous political system and a subsequent focus on economic
transition, market and consumption made it difcult to consider
other issues. Only gradually did other priorities emerge, such as
improving institutional governance and societal demand for
responsible corporate behavior. Often it was the lack of knowledge
or awareness rather than consumer indifference that prevented
consumers from voting with their purses (Rok et al., 2007). The
lack of criticism and discourse with companies is partly inherited
from the communist era and similarly the media often fail to hold
companies accountable for their irresponsible behavior (Line and
Braun, 2007).
As consumer demand for sustainability is still relatively low,
Polish companies are not particularly active in the area of CSR nor
sustainability, both in the case of large companies (Aluchna, 2010)
 kiewicz, 2007). CSR or sustainability issues have
and SMEs (Bien
fallen most often within the obligations of PR departments who did
not have enough experience and understanding (not to mention
decision making power) to integrate sustainability issues into all
spheres of business activity (Rok et al., 2007). The activity of large
companies is most often restricted to simple and relatively visible
charities and very rarely do they attempt to solve different social or
environmental problems in their surroundings (Aluchna, 2010).
This is further reected in the low innovativeness of the best
practices in CSR promoted by the Responsible Business Forum (e.g.
FOB, 2010).

2.3. Review summary

The above drivers and barriers that affected sustainability in
Poland during the transition period are summarized in Table 1. In
addition, Fig. 1 presents a mental map of the current situation as
a system diagram. On the left side of the diagram, there are
external drivers of sustainability in Polish business. This list is
shorter than that in Table 1 because it only includes variables of
high importance in the current post-transition situation. The
right side of the diagram consists of four variables, which create
the reinforcing feedback loops, thus having key inuence on the
analysed system. In the current situation, all these variables are
in a relatively low state, and instead of promoting sustainability,
they hinder it and limit the inuence of the positive factors from
the left side of the diagram. It is crucial to overcome this stagnation and work on these key variables to improve the situation
in these aspects. This will allow the system to change its current,
disadvantageous state, and thanks to the reinforcing character of
these feedback loops the positive effects will be amplied. One of
those key variables is Polish good practice e the subject of our
study.

J. Kronenberg, T. Bergier / Journal of Cleaner Production 26 (2012) 18e27

21

Table 1
Drivers and barriers to sustainability in Poland as identied in the literature.
Drivers

Barriers

Structural change
Restructuring of companies
Competition
New institutions in environmental policy, including new economic instruments
EU institutional pressure
External funding
Foreign direct investment
External technical support (including sharing of good practice)
Imitating good practice from abroad
Activity of NGOs
Development of mechanisms and institutions during the communist era and
the transition period that might support sustainable development

Poor institutions
Low environmental and social awareness of citizens and decision
makers (environment or development dilemma)
Entrusting PR departments with sustainability/CSR
Few genuine good practices available among Polish companies
Low levels of social capital and trust
New problems related to consumption (e.g. waste, trafc)

3. Case studies and lessons learnt

3.1. Method
We collected and analysed a number of Polish case studies that
reect various sustainability-related issues. Apart from having purely
academic objectives, the project aimed at promoting sustainable
development among Polish decision makers and other professionals.
For this reason we focused on case studies that mostly reect good
practice and address the barriers to spreading the positive examples.
We assumed that national case studies have a higher potential to
persuade and inspire stakeholders from Poland and other CEE
countries, compared with foreign case studies. The transfer of experience and good practice from developed countries to Poland
encountered several limitations because of their different conditions
and history. Besides, many examples and practices from developed
countries are already well documented, while there are only a few
works on those from CEE, most of them in native languages, thus of
limited use for readers in other countries of the region.
There are few publications in which case studies are used to
illustrate the situation of business sustainability in Poland
 kiewicz, 2007; FOB, 2010). However, most of them list and
(Bien
describe the variety of activities related separately to: environmental protection, human resources management, optimization of
production or management, and particularly often public relations;
areas that are connected with sustainable development, but that do

not show its complex essence and potential. Furthermore, the most
widely known good practices are sometimes isolated from the core
activity of the companies that undertook them. And it is not rare
that companies are perceived as responsible because of those
examples, in spite of some irresponsible practices in their core
activity (e.g. being accused of monopolistic practices or operating in
unsustainable sectors). Clearly, this results from the close relationship between CSR and PR in Poland.
What distinguishes our project from others undertaken in
Poland so far is the method of case study selection. We were looking
for case studies which are strictly connected with sustainability,
multidimensional and interdisciplinary, obligatorily referring to all
pillars of sustainable development. We concentrated on the cases
connected to business. Our ambition was to identify and describe
the cutting-edge and inspiring cases to show sustainable development become an authentic movement in Poland, with a potential to
inuence our business activities and shape our economy. Nevertheless, while selecting cases, we did not try to avoid difcult issues,
traps and problems, which are inseparably connected with the
innovative character of these actions and generally with the
implementation of sustainable development in a young and still
developing market economy. What we avoided though were
examples of activities related to public relations, cause-related
marketing, and other kinds of marketing and advertising activities.
To identify the recent Polish case studies meeting the above
criteria, we made a call addressed to the experts and practitioners

Technical
support/good
practice from
abroad

Sustainability
'know-how' in
Polish
organizations

EU
institutional
pressure
Polish good
practice
External (EU)
funding

Competition (also
with companies from
external markets)

Institutions/economic
instruments of
environmental policy

Sustainable
activities in
Polish business

Environmental and
social awareness
of citizens and
decision makers

Social capital and

trust

Fig. 1. System diagram of current drivers and barriers to sustainability in Polish business.

22

J. Kronenberg, T. Bergier / Journal of Cleaner Production 26 (2012) 18e27

of sustainable development in Poland. First of all, we addressed our

call to the partners of the Sendzimir Foundation, including
instructors and alumni of its Summer Academy Challenges of
Sustainable Development in Poland, organized in our country
annually since 1998. It is a numerous and active group of sustainable development professionals, including researchers, leaders and
activists in NGOs, people employed in companies of various sizes as
CSR coordinators or in other positions connected with sustainability, as well as consultants. Secondly, we reached with our call
other scientists and experts of sustainable development and CSR in
Poland. We also searched the literature and other resources to
identify cases meeting our criteria. Among others, we studied all
main catalogues of Polish CSR good practices, and several sectoral
databases and research papers on the subject. This search was
conducted since February to November 2009 and we analysed most
of Polish case studies available in that time. As a result, we selected
11 cases that we judged as the most eligible for our research and
asked the authors to describe them for use both in research and
teaching. An additional benet of this project was the business
section of the rst Polish textbook on sustainable development
which was based entirely on Polish case studies (also published in
English: Kronenberg and Bergier, 2010). The textbook features
a broader selection of 23 case studies from various aspects of Polish
society and economy. The book shows that during the 20 years
since the fall of communism, we have already collected a substantial amount of material that can be used for teaching and promoting
the principles of sustainable development in Poland and in other
countries.
Although the obtained case studies cannot be generalized to
represent the overall situation of sustainable development in Polish
business sector, they indicate the new trends emerging as a result
of the drivers and barriers presented in the previous section. The
main advantage of using case studies is that they help to identify
new important variables and generate new hypotheses, based on
an inductive analysis (Odell, 2001; George and Bennett, 2005). They
can even contribute to theory building, especially if one nds an
extreme case that seems very unlikely to conrm a given hypothesis
to actually do so, or they can inrm theories if one identies a case
that disconrms a theory even when the conditions seem favorable
to conrm it (Odell, 2001). In this light, our case studies help to
reject the prevalent view that business in CEE is inherently unsustainable and that good sustainability case studies have to be sought
outside the region.
3.2. Results
Overviews of 11 case studies are presented in Table 2. These
examples refer to business activity, either directly (stakeholder
relations; sustainability management; production; sustainable
supply chain management) or indirectly (indicating broader business opportunities, such as construction; replacing products with
services; public-private partnerships; changing demand patterns).
Table 2 contains short descriptions of each case study (CS),
including the problem to which each refers, the solution developed,
the driving force for the solution, and the trend that it represents
from the list of trends identied in the previous section. A note has
also been made on the replication factor of each example, i.e.
whether such a situation is or can become common and under
what circumstances. Detailed descriptions of these case studies can
be found in the above mentioned textbook (Kronenberg and
Bergier, 2010).
Although the selected examples represent good practice and
issues particularly relevant to the principles of sustainable development, they often only replicate good practices developed in other
countries. This is related to the introduction of EU policies,

popularization of CSR (including the introduction of practices followed by international corporations to their Polish subsidiaries),
and the slowly increasing level of environmental and social
awareness amongst the Poles themselves. These examples conrm
that EU membership (since 2004) has helped to implement
sustainable development in Poland both nancially and
institutionally.
CS1 illustrates how socially and environmentally responsible
behavior of companies has been promoted by new EU regulations.
Not only have these regulations provided a legal framework for
more restrictive execution of law but also they helped to create new
socio-economic conditions with stronger institutions and better
opportunities for the involvement of society. Indeed, Polish citizens
rarely take part in public consultations or other forms of decision
making both because of their passive attitude and disillusionment
 ska,
with the functioning of public institutions (Kolarska-Bobin
2003), and because of poor quality of public consultation
 ski et al., 2011). As a result, private interests
processes (Celin
predominate and public goods are often neglected. However, CS1
demonstrates a typical situation where social attitudes have been
changing, from the initial environment or development dilemma
to a more comprehensive sustainable development perspective
(environmental Kuznets curve). Both local people and authorities
initially favored jobs over environmental or social responsibility,
and then gradually realized that economic, environmental and
social objectives are not contradictory and that they can require the
company to be more responsible. Changing social attitudes are also
reected in other case studies, indicating changing demand, the
most important driver of business activity (CS10, CS11).
The quality of public institutions has been improving during the
transition period which resulted in new opportunities for publicprivate partnerships (CS2, CS3, CS4). In the early years of the
transition period, Polish local authorities often beneted from aid
funding (CS3) but the availability of these funds has been gradually
limited. Currently, EU funds provide a major development stimulus
and increasingly other options are explored. Public-private partnerships provide an opportunity for undertaking large-scale
projects, also in the area of natural resource management and
improving the state of still relatively poor condition of public
infrastructure and public space. However, what is necessary is not
only funding but also innovative strategies for urban renewal,
combining different dimensions of renovation, such as the one
followed in the case of the Turzyn Quarter in Szczecin (CS3).
Interestingly, there was already one new urban project taking into
consideration the ideas of a sustainable city prepared and planned
by a private company (CS4), which again reects changing demand
from consumers. In CS4 future inhabitants and other users were
involved in the decision making process regarding a new district. To
some extent social participation was also ensured in CS3.
Most Polish business sustainability examples are not particularly sophisticated, compared to their counterparts in the most
advanced countries. Nevertheless, the principles of sustainable
development and the related ideas are indeed increasingly being
followed in Poland, partly in response to consumer demand, and
partly prompted by foreign examples or foreign owners. In some
cases, this is related to broader problems, such as the nancial crisis
that made it necessary to increase transparency and demonstrate
how nancial institutions were ensuring the safety of their
customers and of their own operations (CS5). Simple activities in
this area have spread to large state-owned companies (such as the
Polish Gas and Oil Mining company, a monopoly and one of the
largest companies in Poland, CS6). On the one hand, state-owned
companies are most often perceived as the least likely to change
and respond to new market signals. On the other hand, most of
them are large and highly visible and thus draw a lot of public

Table 2
Case studies related to sustainable development in business.
Geographical coverage

Problem

Solution

Driving force for the

solution

More general trends

illustrated

Replication factor (actual

and potential)

CS1. Wood processing

company and the
environment and local
community

Undisclosed

A wood processing
company owned by
an international
corporation located in
a picturesque town at
a tourist attractive
lake is polluting the
environment and
causing other nuisances
for the local population,
whilst being at the same
time the most important
employer

Cooperation with the local

community
Broader transparency
Strengthening local
institutions (providing
a counterbalance for the
company)

Disillusionment by the local

population

EU pressure
Social empowerment

A very common example of

how environmental
protection and
community relations
have been changing
since the 1960s until
the present

CS2. WarmiaeMazury Spa

Lidzbark Warminski (north

east Poland)

Discovery of geothermal
sources that might
potentially be used to
create a spa in a region
without sufcient funds
to develop them

Public-private partnership
(PPP)

The project won 1st prize in

a national competition
on the best-prepared PPP

Institutional improvement
(new act on PPP
introduced in 2008)

Potential use of PPP for

sustainable development
is high

CS3. Turzyn Quarter in

Szczecin e sustainable
renovation

Szczecin

Derelict urban spaces

Lack of adequate housing
conditions
Urban sprawl

Renovation of a district in
Szczecin in an
environmentally friendly
way and preserving the
previous social structure
of inhabitants

Availability of funding for

this type of renovation
Need of developing
urban spaces

External funding (pilot

project)

Problem present in all

Polish towns and cities
Solution followed rarely as
other renovation
methods are easier and
less expensive

CS4. Eco-town Siewierz

Katowice

New town planned in

Siewierz, on the rail way
from Katowice to Katowice
Airport, by a lake
The area was planned for
industrial development
but it was replanned as
an eco-town e the rst
such undertaking in
Poland

New ideas for space

management
Active participation of
future inhabitants in
urban planning process

Idea to create a unique

living space
Customer pressure

Knowledge from abroad

(New Urbanism) adapted
to local conditions
Imitating good practice
from developed
countries

Pressure for housing estates

ensuring high quality of
life makes way for
similar projects

CS5. Implementing Global

Reporting Initiatives
(GRI) guidelines in the
BRE Bank

Company with
headquarters in Warsaw

Financial problems related

to the global crisis
Low level of transparency
and lack of information
about responsible
practice

Using GRI guidelines to

prepare a sustainability
report
Updating the CSR
management structure

Market pressure
External advisor

Following good practice

from developed
countries

Increasingly, large Polish

companies undertake
CSR activities

CS6. SD and CSR strategy in

the Polish Oil and Gas
Mining company

Company with
headquarters in Warsaw

Large state-owned
company, widely
perceived as not
particularly responsible
because of its monopolist
position in the gas
market and
politically-dependent

Interactive and iterative

process involving
managers at different
levels through
workshops,
consultations and a new
management structure

Market pressure
External advisor

Imitating good practice

from developed
countries

Common problem in large

state-owned companies
Increasingly, they
undertake CSR activities

J. Kronenberg, T. Bergier / Journal of Cleaner Production 26 (2012) 18e27

Number and name

(continued on next page)

23

24

Table 2 (continued )
Geographical coverage

Problem

Solution

Driving force for the

solution

More general trends

illustrated

Replication factor (actual

and potential)

CS7. LCA as a tool

supporting eco-design e
example of a fridge

Undisclosed

To be competitive in
foreign markets, Polish
companies have to adopt
standards and
management methods
used in those markets

LCA partly based on the

producer-specic data,
prepared using
internationallydeveloped software
Eco-design based on LCA
results

Demand from foreign

markets

Exporting companies are

exposed to pressure from
the markets on which
they operate
Knowledge from abroad
adapted to local
conditions

Increasingly common

CS8. IKEA e Low prices, but

not at any price

Global; Polish headquarters

in Warsaw

Company accused of
irresponsible practices in
some markets
In Poland such accusations
were not made, the
response was part of the
global policy of the
company

IKEA system of codes IWAY

e the IKEA Way on
Purchasing Home
Furnishing Products
Sustainable product
chain management tools

Consumer pressure
Other stakeholders
pressure

International corporation
introducing its
sustainability practice
into a new market
Maintaining the same
standards globally

Potential wide application

In reality almost nonexistent among Polish
companies

CS9. Public libraries in

Poland

Nationwide

Falling number of libraries,

of borrowers and of
rentals despite
modernization of the
libraries and the
important social
functions they provide

Improving the
competitiveness of
libraries through
additional services

Global trends related to

getting access to
information and culture

General illustration of
problems incurred by the
approach of replacing
products with services

Problems related to
replacing products with
services e consumers
conviction that it is
a solution for the poor

CS10. Fair trade in Poland

Nationwide

Consumers in Poland are

increasingly afuent and
can afford to make
responsible purchases
that inuence societies
in other parts of the
world

Development of the market

for fair trade products in
Poland

Consumer demand
NGOs activity

Following good practice

from developed
countries

A possibility to include
some nationally-made
products that full the
same criteria

CS11. Consumer education

programmes run by
NGOs in Poland

Nationwide

Low awareness in the

Polish society of
sustainable development
problems
Low awareness of the
role of individual
consumption decisions
in sustainable
development

Educational programmes
run by NGOs, with
a particular focus on the
most prominent
examples of the Polish
Green Network (Polska
Zielona Sie
c) and WWF
Poland

Translating resources and

activities available
abroad into relevant
resources and activities
directed at Polish
consumers

Following good practice

from developed
countries
Knowledge from abroad

Need to complement
current activities with
materials developed
specically for Polish
conditions

J. Kronenberg, T. Bergier / Journal of Cleaner Production 26 (2012) 18e27

Number and name

J. Kronenberg, T. Bergier / Journal of Cleaner Production 26 (2012) 18e27

attention. Comparing CS5 and CS6, we can see the difference

between following and imitating good practice from developed
countries e the former being more creative, and the latter e
simpler.
Despite the fact the demand for sustainability-related practices
in Poland is increasing, it is still too low to be sufcient for most
companies to undertake these activities. Some exporting companies only undertook such activities in response to pressure from
foreign markets (CS7) and others as part of corporate policies (in
the case of international companies, CS8). In spite of the fact that
the life cycle approach is being promoted by the EU, this is still not
reected strongly enough in national policies of some of the new
members (cf. Kronenberg and Maliszewska, 2004; Kronenberg,
2007). Thus, companies that are active in international markets
have to be ahead of those active in Poland only, which might give
them advantage over their national competitors once regulations
and demand change further (Porter, 1991; Porter and Van der Linde,
1995).
Innovative business solutions, such as producteservice systems,
are also appearing in Poland and often they are undertaken by
SMEs. Renting DIY tools and equipment provides a prime example
of a market that has grown rapidly in recent years. CS9 reects
important barriers to this kind of solutions, using an example of
public libraries the number of which and the demand for the
services of which have both been decreasing. Interestingly, renting
used to be more common in Poland in the communist era than it is
now, conrming that not everything that was promoted at that
time was unsustainable. However, it is the association with the
communist period and the general inaccessibility of consumption
goods at that time that results in the aversion to shared ownership.
Nowadays, this heritage negatively affects the potential to spread
innovative solutions, such as producteservice systems, in Poland
and other transition economies.
One more interesting trend is increasing interest of Polish
consumers in responsible or ethical consumption. This is reected
in the rapidly growing market for fair trade products which is
managed largely as a bottom-up initiative of a coalition of NGOs
(CS10). This example reects a new consumption trend and a new
market opportunity, not only related to foreign products but also to
similar products from Poland. Eventually, it also demonstrates the
social analogue of an environmental Kuznets curve, with increasingly afuent people paying increasing attention to the conditions
in which their products were manufactured. Nevertheless, one has
to remember that fair trade market is still minuscule in Poland, and
its rapid growth rate results from its nascent state.
Education programmes run by NGOs (CS11) help to alleviate the
above problems. However these, in addition to the use of foreign
examples, should also make reference to local knowledge and
traditions, and in their examples refer directly to Polish conditions.
Such communications would also be more convincing for a Polish
audience. Indeed, using national case studies demonstrates that
sustainable development is possible in a given social and economic
setting, and it can help promote sustainability more than broadly
used perfected examples from abroad. Eventually, a network of
sustainability professionals who exchange opinions and share them
with others is gradually evolving around these initial examples.

4. Discussion and conclusions

Our aim was to collate progressive case studies from Poland and,
based on their analysis, to assess the drivers and barriers to
sustainability. Showing that good case studies are already available
nationally might better motivate other stakeholders to follow them
rather than constantly using the same case studies from other

25

countries, which are sometimes either out of date or unsuited to the

Polish context.
Adjusting their activities to the requirements of sustainable
development, companies in developed countries are increasingly
responding to pressures exerted by social and economic actors.
These include the need to obtain the so-called social licence to
operate (Gunningham et al., 2004) and the related sustainable
chain management (Seuring and Mller, 2008). Our CS1 demonstrates the increasing importance of the social licence to operate in
Poland and CS8 shows how global corporations are inuencing
their international supply chains. Additionally, CS11 highlights the
important role of NGOs in promoting sustainable consumption.
Although in Poland, as well as in other CEE countries (Tuncer et al.,
2008), NGOs still have much potential to exploit, they are already
implementing many activities that their counterparts in more
developed countries perform to inuence consumers and
producers (Hartman et al., 1999; Church and Lorek, 2007).
In response to market and civil society pressure, companies
initiate dialogue with their stakeholders, including through
sustainability reporting (CS5). However, of almost 1900 GRIcompliant sustainability reports published in 2010 and registered
with GRI, only 9 were prepared by Polish companies (GRI, 2011).
More companies started to introduce life-cycle thinking into their
product management (illustrated by our CS7). Rather than in
response to consumer pressure as in some highly developed
countries (Heiskanen, 2000), they are motivated by the use of LCA
and life-cycle thinking in EU policy (Kronenberg, 2007). Few stateowned companies are also trying to follow the concept of
sustainable development (CS6), but similarly to the situation in
developed countries, e.g. Australia (Adams and McNicholas, 2007),
they are less eager to engage into sustainability.
Although in developed countries public-private partnerships
are more commonly used than in Poland, like in our CS2, they are
most often initiated by local or regional authorities and not by
companies (von Malmborg, 2003). The potential to use this
approach in Poland is huge, as both CS3 and CS4 further demonstrate, because of the scale of development challenges still ahead of
the country. Indeed, the New Urbanism followed in CS4 emerged in
the 1980s in the USA, in response to challenging urban circumstances and it offered new opportunities for innovative companies
(Grant, 2006).
Some sustainability-related innovations particularly strongly
depend on the socio-cultural context, as the example of producteservice systems demonstrates (CS9). Indeed, not only in
Poland do consumption solutions based on shared use have relatively low prole in society but in developed countries, too (Mont,
2004). Other innovations may be perceived as unattractive for
companies. For example, fair trade in Poland (CS10) is the domain
of NGOs rather than competitive companies as it is the case in the
most mature markets for fair trade products, such as the UK
(Davies, 2008; Davies et al., 2009). The Polish Fair Trade Coalition
created in 2009 is not yet afliated with the Fairtrade Labelling
Organizations International and the sales are minor not only
compared to those in the largest fair trade markets but even to the
smaller countries of CEE region.
Our analysis indicates that some good case studies from Poland
are already approaching sustainability standards of developed
countries. Furthermore, the difculty to identify case studies that
would integrate all three dimensions of sustainability is not specic
to Poland, as such cases are also relatively rare in the international
setting (Seuring and Mller, 2008). Our case studies demonstrate
the complicated system of interactions between different stakeholders which has to change in transformation to sustainability. On
the one hand, this transformation should be easier in a transition
economy e because change is necessary anyway and new ideas

26

J. Kronenberg, T. Bergier / Journal of Cleaner Production 26 (2012) 18e27

might be explored relatively easily. On the other hand, it is easier to

think in a standard (conservative) way and the importance of
sustainable development in the early 1990s was probably not
enough to inuence signicantly the situation of Poland.
After more than 20 years since the economic transition started,
it is crucial for CEE countries to share their experience, and popularize good cases available and discuss them on the international
forum. They will serve as guidance for other countries and as
a platform for undertaking common initiatives. We treat this article
as an invitation to such a discussion and as an input to the CEE good
practices database, which hopefully will develop and improve.
Examining in greater depth how to further increase awareness
and the involvement of citizens in environmental decision making
is a particularly important area for further research. One more area
of further research might be on sustainability and SMEs. SMEs
constitute the largest share of businesses and they have a signicant inuence on everyday lives of many individuals and communities. It is often suggested that many of these enterprises follow
the ideas of sustainable development and CSR but, unlike large
companies, they are not able to use this as a leverage in their
 kiewicz, 2007). So far, SMEs have not
promotional strategies (Bien
received enough attention and they were not represented in our
selection of case studies.
Acknowledgements
 ski, Agnieszka Kopan
 ska,
We would like to thank Tomasz Jelen
Agata Koz1owska, Przemys1aw Kurczewski, Anna Lewandowska,
 tek who
 ska-Kutra and Leszek Swia
qukasz Makuch, Marta Strumin
contributed their case studies to our project. We are also grateful to
Alastor Coleby for improving the readability of this text and to
David Benson and Gyula Zilahy for their comments on the earlier
drafts. The project was carried out with nancial support from the
Sendzimir Foundation, the Polish National Fund for Environmental
Protection and Water Management, and the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt.
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