Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Intro To Sustainability
Intro To Sustainability
Sustainability
These notes available via the
online course outline at:
http://www.brocku.ca/tren/courses/tr
en3p18
TREN 1F90
Introduction to Sustainability
Definitions
– environment
– policy
– scale
– jurisdiction
Defining Sustainable Development
About Interdisciplinarity
Definitions, tools
and frameworks
en·vi·ron·ment
in-'vI-r&(n)-m&nt, -'vI(-&)r(n)-
[n] 1 : the circumstances, objects, or conditions by
which one is surrounded
2 a : the complex of physical, chemical, and biotic
factors (as climate, soil, and living things) that act
upon an organism or an ecological community and
ultimately determine its form and survival b : the
aggregate of social and cultural conditions that
influence the life of an individual or community.
- Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2004
environment
[n] the totality of
surrounding conditions.
environmental
effects
…are felt, and modified, in 3 main ways -
through the flows of:
MATERIALS
ENERGY
INFORMATION
-> fundamental ‘spheres of influence’ for
sustainability
policy
…a course or general plan of action to be
adopted by a government, party, person,
etc.
- Concise Oxford Dictionary
policy
…a selected, planned line of conduct
in the light of which individual
decisions are made and coordination
achieved
- Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary
conceptual tools for
understanding sustainability
scale
- an ordered series of
graduated quantities, values,
degrees, etc.
- relative magnitude
- Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary
scale
may be:
- physical / geographical
– ranking based upon size, dimension,
geographical subunit, etc.
- ecological
– individual, deme, community, population
- jurisdictional
– local, municipal, regional, federal, global
scale
GLOBAL / MACRO
earth United Nations
continent .
country .
province governments
region .
municipality .
neighbourhood ngos / community groups
household .
individual individuals
LOCAL / MICRO
spatial jurisdictional /
decision making
jurisdiction
- the legal power to administer and
enforce the law
- the exercising of this power
- the region within which this power is
valid or in which a person has
authority
- authority
- Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary
Defining
Sustainable
Development
Sustainable development:
meeting the needs of the
present without compromising
the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs.
Economy Society
Economy Society
Economy Equity
The Healthy Community Model
SOCIETY ECONOMY
HEALTH
ENVIRONMENT
Sustainability: PROBLEMS
Depletion of finite resources
– fuels, soil, minerals, species
Over-use of renewable resources
– forests, fish & wildlife, fertility, public funds
Pollution
– air, water, soil
Inequity
– economic, political, social, gender
Species loss
– endangered species and spaces
- WCED, 1987
Sustainability: SOLUTIONS
Cyclical material use
– emulate natural cycles; 3 R’s
Safe reliable energy
– conservation, renewable energy, substitution,
interim measures
Life-based interests
– health, creativity, communication,
coordination, appreciation, learning,
intellectual and spiritual development
Two key sustainable development concepts:
EQUITY
LIMITS TO GROWTH
-WCED 1987
Two key sustainable development concepts:
EQUITY
-WCED 1987
Two key sustainable development concepts:
EQUITY
• the quality of being fair or impartial;
fairness; impartiality
• something that is fair and just.
-dictionary.com
Contrast with:
EQUALITY
• the state or quality of being equal;
correspondence in quantity, degree,
value, rank, or ability.
• uniform character, as of motion or
surface.
-dictionary.com
Two key sustainable development concepts:
-WCED 1987
Two key sustainable development concepts:
LIMITS TO GROWTH
- quantitative and qualitative limits
- living within the regenerative and
assimilative capacities of the
planet
-WCED 1987
Sustainable development...
implies limits
Not predefined absolute limits, but
limitations imposed by:
– the ability of the biosphere to absorb the
effects of human activities
– adaptability of human social and political
organization
– technology
Sustainable development
and economic growth
Economic growth must be made:
– less material intensive (‘dematerialization of
the economy’)
– less energy intensive
– more equitable in its impacts
ENERGY HEAT
ENV’T
SOCIETY
TRADITIONAL
DECISION MAKING
ECONOMY
ENV’T
• NON-PARTICIPATORY
SOCIETY
•FRAGMENTED
TRADITIONAL
DECISION MAKING
ECONOMY
ENV’T
SOCIETY
‘ECO- ECONOMY
SOCIETY
SYSTEM
HEALTH’
ENVIRONMENT
TRADITIONAL
DECISION MAKING
ECOSYSTEM-BASED
DECISION MAKING
SOCIETY
‘ECO- ECONOMY
SYSTEM
HEALTH’
• PARTICIPATORY ENVIRONMENT
• INTEGRATED
ECOSYSTEM-BASED
DECISION MAKING
Fragmented decision-making
private
other public
interests
community federal /
groups
ISSUE national
municipal provincial /
state
regional
private
other
interests public
community federal/
federal
groups
ISSUE
national
municipal provincial/
state
regional
- after Barrett and Kidd, 1991
decision making
• reactive
decision making
• reactive
(‘end of pipe’)
decision making
• anticipatory
• reactive
decision making
• anticipatory
(planning for
change)
• reactive
decision making
• radical
• anticipatory
• reactive
decision making
• radical
(fundamental;
root causes)
• anticipatory
• reactive
decision making
• radical
• anticipatory
• reactive
Industry
• environment
• sewage treatment plant or
• reactive - ‘end of pipe’ solution economy
Historical
example: Northern
Telecom
based in Canada
42 plants in various countries
manufacturer of electronic components
(telecommunications)
1988: 1000+ tonnes of CFCs per year
1992: 0 tonnes of CFCs used per year
Original Process
1) raw components and grease
2) manufacturing and assembly process
3) clean off grease with CFCs
4) finished product
Revised process
1) raw components, no grease
2) manufacturing and assembly process
3) no need to clean off grease with CFCs
4) finished product
Environment AND Economy
$1 million to develop new process
$4 million savings in first year (no
CFCs)
$50 million savings to year 2000
international environmental prize ->
great publicity
contract with Mexico for industrial
innovation (very lucrative)
• radical
•
anticipatory
• reactive
Industry
• radical
•
anticipatory
• reactive
Industry
• radical • change in
demand for
product
• • change in
anticipatory industrial
process
• sewage
treatment
plant for
• reactive wastes
Industry Biodiversity Transportation
• • change in • establish
anticipatory • industrial national
process parks (12%)
to protect
habitats
ideologies
Short form summary of basic values that
eliminates the need to engage in deep
philosophical investigations every time action is
required
interactions amongst
values / ideologies / strategies
values
individual, cultural, social, spiritual, moral
ideologies
(e.g. Industrial Capitalism, Marxism, Christianity,
Liberalism, Socialism, Conservatism, Judaism)
interactions amongst
values / ideologies / strategies
values
individual, cultural, social, spiritual, moral
ideologies
(e.g. Industrial Capitalism, Marxism, Christianity,
Liberalism, Socialism, Conservatism, Judaism)
strategies
practical applications of ideologically consistent
ideas, actions, policies and programs
interactions amongst
values / ideologies / strategies
• limits to growth
• appropriate technology
•appropriate scale
policy
principles
policy
practice
To be useful, principles of
sustainability must:
be easily understood
be applicable in many contexts
be transferrable across scales
translate well from fundamental values into
applied policy and practical action
identify possibilities for radical
transformative change AND
positive incremental change
Some
Principles of Sustainability
in the literature:
Our Common Future (WCED 1987)
Principles defining sustainable development (OSEM 1989)
Defining a sustainable society (Robinson et al . 1990,1996)
Agenda 21 (1992)
Six principles of sustainable development (ORTEE 1992)
Guideposts for a sustainable future (Nickerson 1993)
Framework for Sustainable Development (CIDA 1994)
The Natural Step (Robert et al . 1994)
Sustainability Principles (ORTEE 1994), etc.
Recent compilation of
Principles of Sustainability
http://iisd1.iisd.ca/sd/principle.asp
-IISD (Winnipeg)
One example:
Normative
categories
academic ethnocultural
major identity
Normative
categories
Normative
“disciplines”
categories
disciplinary
Multidisciplinary
Interdisciplinary
Transdisciplinary
- what are the differences?
Reference: Stefanovic, Ingrid. 1996. Interdisciplinarity
and Wholeness: Lessons from Eco-Research.
Environments 23(3): 74-94.
Disciplinary:
Examples of disciplines:
sociology, philosophy, biology,
political science, chemistry, economics,
geography, mathematics...
Multidisciplinary:
insights achieved through an approach which is essentially additive rather than integrative
Multidisciplinary:
arguably the approach which produces the most substantive research results
ISSUE
discipline
dis i ne
ci p ip l
li n s c
e di
e di
n sc
discipline
p li
ci ip
s lin
di e
Interdisciplinary:
the issue, problem, or concern defines the disciplinary expertise which is brought to
bear
a level of integration which involves more than an additive analysis of the disciplinary perspectives
insights are achieved through an approach which is explicitly integrative -> an a priori attempt
is made at synthesis across disciplinary boundaries
ISSUE
ISSUE
discipline
discipline discipline
discipline discipline
discipline
sector
sector sector
sector sector
sector
Transdisciplinary:
“an attempt to transcend the dynamics of a dialectical synthesis to grasp the total dynamics of reality as a
whole”
discipline discipline
discipline