ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND SUSTAINABILITY: A CASE STUDY AT EMPRESA BAIANA DE ÁGUAS E SANEAMENTO.

Abstract

Environmental education gains space in face of the unbalance caused by human beings to the ecosystem; and enterprises, in general, are perceived as villains in that process. The aim of this article is to analyze environmental education’s actions developed by Empresa Baiana de Águas e Saneamento (EMBASA), responsible for water treatment and distribution and waste collection in Bahia State, as well as identifying socio-environmental development’s levels, through its management practices. For that purpose, case study, bibliographic research, questionnaires, focal group and observation have been employed, with emphasis on qualitative analysis. Research reveals that the enterprise shows a high level of socio-environmental development, founded on practices of Social Responsibility. It can be seen that environmental education, allied to legislation and environmental control mechanisms, plays an essential role on the change of organizational e social attitudes, since it makes possible new kinds of learning. And environmental ethics articulated to educative actions is decisive to current and future generations’ quality of life, as well as mankind’s survival.