Sustainable City solutions can become an essential element of the development of contemporary urban communities. This development path can also provide opportunities for organisations operating in cities and metropolises. An inherent feature of the organisation which a city constitutes is that it enables the people who make it up to cooperate. Climate packages, including the Green Deal and Fit for 55, are implemented in Europe, while in Poland decarbonisation processes are underway. The main challenges in this area include, on the one hand, a search for savings of energy consumed, and, on the other hand, a reduction in pollution resulting from the use of transport or heat or energy sources. Cities and metropolises will become green only when they manage to cope with these problems. The article aims at showing various facets of sustainable smart city management. With relations, information and knowledge gaining importance as the key organisational resource, cities have become, as organisations, an essential element of contemporary societies and organisations. In recent times, the harmful emissions from heating installations have drawn the attention of the public opinion in Poland. Polish municipalities distribute heat which mostly comes from local, most often district heating systems where energy is generated on a wide scale from coal combustion. This study compares the results of an air quality survey and those of a case study to assess the potential for the implementation of an automated heat control system in cities. On the basis of solutions implemented in the Warsaw Metropolis, the possibility of their implementation in the Upper Silesian (GZM) and Poznań Metropolises, too, was also assessed. Throughout Poland, there is a large potential for the application of innovative smart technologies in district heating systems to reduce the levels of harmful emissions. These reductions, which are still possible, could translate into a significant improvement in the attractiveness and competitiveness of municipalities. Finally, practical recommendations are being provided.

Currently, one of the main directions of agricultural development in Poland is the pursuit of sustainable development, rational management of material resources, and striving for energy self-sufficiency, while maintaining low greenhouse gas emissions. It is an alternative to constantly supported coal solutions. Sustainable development in the sense of processes taking place in enterprises affects many key areas of their activity. One of them is the measurement of efficiency, another is the compatibility with nature and the environment, and the perception of humans and their role. Measures of enterprises’ effectiveness should be considered in relation to the objectives of the enterprise. Biorefineries play a special role in shaping the new energy reality, being a system that connects various devices and biomass conversion processes to produce energy, fuel, and other valuable products. The essence of the functioning of biorefineries is as value chains; that is, a series of interrelated activities of specific importance and market value. The study aims to identify the determinants and efficiency of value chains in agricultural biorefineries according to the concept of sustainable development and the use of biomass resources in biorefining processes. Identifying and analyzing individual stages allows one to demonstrate the effectiveness of the implementation of technology using renewable energy sources, according to the concept of sustainable development and the implementation of the direction of the circular economy.

Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego

Objectives: The problem of housing needs requires continuous monitoring as well as analysis and evaluation of its solutions. One such solution could be container housing, positive examples of which can be found abroad, e.g. in Sweden or Canada. For this to happen, an attempt should be made to assess whether this type of construction has a chance to appear in Poland and whether it can be an attractive segment from the point of view of the market and meeting the needs of buyers. Therefore, the objectives of the study were to assess: (1) whether container housing can become a segment seriously considered in the context of meeting housing needs in Poland; (2) the interest of potential buyers of housing in container housing; (3) the attractiveness of container housing. Research Design & Methods: To achieve the objectives, a survey was conducted in Q4 2023 among 67 real estate agents as entities that serve clients on a daily basis and know their needs and preferences. Implications / Recommendations: The obtained results indicate that it is currently difficult to say unequivocally whether container housing can become a segment seriously considered for meeting housing needs in Poland. On the one hand, the results show that there are serious doubts about this (small number of offers, low customer interest, little knowledge of the subject, customer fears), while on the other hand, container flats can be visually attractive to customers, are full-featured, and, most importantly, are definitely cheaper than those built with traditional technology. These could be the factors for the potential success of this market segment, perhaps even on such a scale that more mass production of this type of housing would become the so-called ‘game changer’ of the market. Contribution / Value Added: It is necessary to increase people’s awareness, promote this type of construction (including showing positive examples from abroad), and reduce fears and doubts about living in container buildings. Article classification: research article JEL classification: O18, R21, R33