Sustainability Hyperlink to Introduction to Sustainability Video

Introduction: Sustainability

Changes to our environment

Changes in human society

An “apple pie” concept?

What should be sustained? - All natural environments? - Useful natural environments?

 

Concepts of sustainability

Strong sustainability:preservation of the integrity of all ecological systems, species and natural resources (ecocentric outlook)

Weak sustainability: Preservation of the ecosystem services (food, water, energy, clean air, etc) provided by ecosystems to humans (anthropocentric outlook)

Concepts of sustainabilityBOOKLET- ‘Types of

Sustainability; Weak and

Strong’

Sustainable development was defined in the Brundtland Report (1987) as:

Concepts of sustainability

“development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

BOOKLET- ‘What needs

to be sustained?’

Watch the videos below before filling in the Sustainable Development Needs Table:-SUSTAINABLE CITIES IN THE NETWORKED SOCIETY

FUTURE OF CONNECTED AND SUSTAINABLE CITIES

Governments

Stockholm Conference (1972) – creation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Rio Summit (1992) – legal frameworks like the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Convention on Biological Diversity

Policies for sustainability

Policies for sustainability

Governments

Laws: banning CFCs, or hunting whales

Governments

Taxes: Car taxes, congestion charges

Tariffs: Plastic bags (5p) from 1 October 2011

Policies for sustainability

Governments

Incentives: money for returning bottles, insulating your home, or building alternative energy sources.

Policies for sustainability BOOKLET- ‘Protecting the

Amazon’ activity

How Brazil is tackling sustainability issues (links to video)-How Brazil is halting deforestation in the Amazonand a contrasting viewpoint;Impacts of new forest code on Amazon rainforest

Policies for sustainability

Corporations

Johannesburg Summit (2002) – partnerships between governments and businesses

Corporations

Carbon trading schemes:

- Assign a price to carbon dioxide emissions- Give (or sell) companies permits to emit- Allow companies to trade permits: those who emit less can

sell spare permits; those who emit more will have to buy others permits

- This is intended to create a market for carbon emissions, improving the efficiency of carbon emission reductions

Policies for sustainability

Policies for sustainability

Individuals

Offsetting individual carbon emissions, recycling, buying ‘green’ products, living sustainable lifestyles, and political activism

BOOKLET- ‘Ideas for

Sustainable Living.’

What is being sustained?

For how long?

For what purpose?

Where are we going?

What will the world of the future look like?

BOOKLET- ‘Corporate

Environmental Responsibility.’

Environmentally Sustainable; Corporate Social Responsibility Video