What is Sustainability? • Sustainable Development •“development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” –Our Common Future/ Brundtland Report, 1987 •To develop? • –Or – •To sustain? Goal Some of the most threatening environmental problems are caused by widespread poverty Development is based on utilizing/ squandering our biological capital Image result for sustainable development Three pillars of SD ? ? Image result for environment economy society Environment is foundation for all aspects, others are subsets Nested hierarchy is more appropriate than Venn diagram Adopted September 2015 – also called Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development vs Sustainability •Sustainable Development: “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” – Our Common Future/ Brundtland Report, 1987 • • •Sustainability: a system’s ability to create and maintain self-organizing processes Hurricane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Irma https://www.weather.gov/safety/tornado Tornado Ecosystem City Campus All are open systems with energy driving and maintaining the processes All import, reuse, and export resources (water, wood, waste, minerals, metals, materials, etc.) Misuse of the term sustainable •Adjective that means “green” or “eco-friendly” •“A little better for the environment than the alternative” •Doing “better” is not enough •Greenwashing •Reducing unsustanability • Any examples in advertising that you have seen? Sustainababble! Taking inventory who’s responsible? What are we tracking? •If development is not sustainable, is it development – why so many bad decisions? • • • What are we tracking? •Economic indicators get most of the attention in media and by politicians • • • Triple Bottom line: Environmental, Social, & Economic Development Technology will save us: Decoupling –greater resource efficiency Decoupling –greater resource efficiency •Being more efficient saves resources. •If you save resources, namely energy, what are ways that you use the savings? Decoupling –greater resource efficiency leads to rebound effect Do more with less degrowth •Reduce scale to fit within planetary boundaries Do less Degrowth •Can you think of an example where people might be willing to do less? •Can you think of an example where doing less can improve overall well-being, health, or happiness? www.nytimes.com/2016/08/07/upshot/were-in-a-low-growth-world-how-did-we-get-here.html?hp&action=cli ck&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top- news&_r=0 It increasingly looks as if something fundamental is broken in the global growth machine — and that the usual menu of policies, like interest rate cuts and modest fiscal stimulus, aren’t up to the task of fixing it (though some well-devised policies could help). Is sustainability still possible? •“Growing human populations are eating more meat, using more carbon-based energy, shouldering aside more natural resources, and tapping into more renewable and nonrenewable commodities than ever before.” •“If humanity fails to achieve sustainability, when, and how, will unsustainable trends end?” • • Is sustainability still possible? •Why has it proved so hard to conform human behavior to the needs of a life-supporting future? •Our political and economic institutions evolved before anyone imagined the need to restrain human behavior out of concern for the future. • Great Law of the Iroquois •In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation (~140 years into the future) • •What is the purpose of expressing concern for the consequences of decision-making down to the seventh generation from their own? •We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children • Guidance for answers •Western insight into the needed physical and ethical transformations Aldo Leopold •Forest Service and Wisconsin professor, eloquent and passionate writer of our duty to protect balance of nature: humans should extend to nature the same ethical sense of responsibility that we extend to each other. •A Sand County Almanac (1949) – regarded as the most influential book on conservation ever written. •“The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.” http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ht/37.1/images/frese_fig02b.jpg Rachel Carson •1960s – The modern environmental movement is born • •1962 Silent Spring •Carson, writer and marine biologist, told how chemical use on farms, forests, and gardens, poison the environment. Insects were dying (not just the pest species) which meant no food for the birds. No birds, no bird song – a silent spring • •Public awareness that humans are damaging environment http://www.todayinliterature.com/assets/photos/c/rachel-carson-190x290.jpg http://library.furman.edu/resources/subject/women/images/rachelcarson.gif 1st Earth Day 1970 The first Earth Day was a shot heard around the world Donella Meadows and Club of Rome http://www.clubofrome.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/ov-simmons1.jpg 1972 http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/science/cool-space-picture-5.jpg Planetary Boundaries – Stockholm Resilience Centre 2009 Donut Economics – Kate Raworth 2012 •“Natural principles of chemistry, mechanics and biology are not merely limits. They’re invitations to work along with them.” • Limits to Growth 2000 Jane Jacobs •“There are limits. Let’s celebrate the limits, because we can reinvent a different future.” Sunita Narain This Changes Everything 2015 clubofsiena.eco-soft.dk 2015 Ecosystems do quite well under constraints, let’s learn from them There is a right time to grow, it is just not always Steps forward •Identify a shared common vision that respects planetary boundaries •Enhance built environment by mimicking natural processes •Systems thinking at all levels of decision-making •Define sustainability and measure/monitor if current trends are heading toward or away from these trajectories • •Generational leadership initiates transformative change • qChange our dominant paradigm qUse systems thinking and ecosystem thinking qAddress the root causes of environmental problems –Ask yourself where does stuff come from: Food, clothes, electronics, water, energy –Where does it go when I flush it or throw it “away”? qSee connections, make connections qCare about yourself, care about place qEnlist a cadre of excited, eager, and enthusiastic colleagues to explore, discuss, improve, spread, and implement these ideas! q qHAVE FUN! Conclusions A group of people sitting in chairs in a classroom Description automatically generated THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION Second group photo A window with a view of a building and trees Description automatically generated