PRESENTATION

ON
ECONOMY
SUSTAINABILITY
-PRACHI
Sustainable JAISWAL
Development
Economy
Economy: Sustainability

INTRODUCTION

• The desire to make something sustainable – to make it

last – is a common human desire.
• But sustainable development is
• used regularly by a vast number of people,
• in different ways
• and to mean different things.
Economy: Sustainability

SYSTEMS AND HIERARCHIES

• Consider interconnections or systems.

• For a household, an area, a town, a country, a continent or
more.
• Systems might be based or focussed on:
• People
• Physical elements (e.g. water, air quality, resource,
etc.)
• Geographies
• Or other elements.
Economy: Sustainability

POSSIBLE LEVELS

Single Organisation Individual / group / team /

company
Multi-organisations Sector / bigger sector /
cross sector / all
Community Individual / network / linked
networks
Geographical Local / regional / national /
international / global
Economy: Sustainability

ACTIVITY 1

Think about a ‘system’ (something you know well) – your

family, your school, a club or society you belong to, a group of
friends, etc.

Try drawing the structure and connections of this group.

Think about levels, links, inputs, sub-groups, what keeps the

‘system’ functioning.

There is no right answer to this.

Economy: Sustainability

ACTIVITY 2

Collect four articles on environmental, economic and/or

development issues. Use newspapers, online journals or
blogs, or TV / Radio sources.

For each item, answer the following questions:

1. What is the key point?
2. How do you feel about it (Agree? Disagree? Bored?
Angry? Sad? Disbelief? etc.)
3. What are the environmental and / or development issues
in the items?
4. Is there any unusual / subject specific language?
5. Are there any mentions of connections, global
interdependencies, etc?
Economy: Sustainability

HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR SUSTAINABILE DEVELOPMENT

• Why did the Ancient Egyptian, Mayan and Polynesian

civilisations collapse?
• One of the theories is that human demand and
exploitation damaged their support systems.
• Combined with other factors, they could not ADAPT to the
changes in time
• and so could not continue their way of life.
Economy: Sustainability

PREDUCTIONS: PESSIMISTS?

• Malthus 1798
• Mill (ca. 1800)
• Rachel Carson 1965 Silent Spring
• Club of Rome Report 1972 The Limits to Growth

Many historically predicted problems have been solved but

can we always find a technological solution to our problems?
Economy: Sustainability

RECENT MILESTONES - 1

1972 - international conference in Stockholm, Sweden

“sustainable development” phrase first used
1980 - International Union for the Conservation of Nature
and Natural Resources (IUCN), the World Wide Fund for
Nature (WWF) United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), produced the World Conservation Strategy
1983 - the Brandt Commission
1987 - “Our Common Future” and the ‘Brundtland’
definition
“Sustainable development is development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.”
Economy: Sustainability

RECENT MILESTONES - 2

1992 - the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit (United Nations

Conference on Environment and Development);
‘Agenda 21’ - an extensive international agenda for action
for sustainable development for the 21st century.
2000 - United Nations Millennium Summit, world leaders
UN HQ New York adopted the United Nations Millennium
Declaration, to reduce extreme poverty with a series of time-
bound targets - with a deadline of 2015 - that have become
known as the Millennium Development Goals.
2002 - World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)
took place in South Africa.
Economy: Sustainability

CONFLICTING ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Different things to different people.

Driven by individual, group or system values, beliefs and
circumstances.

Values something that you / a group thinks is ‘a good

thing’ or ‘makes life meaningful’
Beliefs a starting point for a developed argument
(not limited to a religious or faith context)
Circumstances personal factors: such as parental
influence, relative wealth, disability,
gender, etc.
Economy: Sustainability

SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIES AND DEVELOPMENT CAN BE

ASSISTED BY:

Governments - using Laws, Guidelines, fines and tax

advantages. These can be positive (incentives or rewards) or
negative (punishments and fines) – or both.
International trade bodies (e.g. EU initiatives, Carbon
trading schemes /offsets, trade and import tariffs / bans, and
more)
Individuals – buying and investing ethically, supporting
‘green’ and / or ‘fairtrade’ producers / sellers; boycotting
unethical companies / countries; living in a more ‘green’ or
sustainable way, with less waste, etc.