Sustainability Theories

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Introduction of Sustainability and Sustainable Development

Nasir Shafiq

AP, Civil Engineering

Learning Objectives

The learning objectives of this lecture

are:

To understand the meaning of sustainability

from different perspectives.

To discuss the principles and guidelines of

sustainability and its components.

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Sustainability: History and Definition

There may be as many definitions of sustainability

and sustainable development as there are groups

trying to define it.

All the definitions have to do with:

Living within the limits

Understanding the interconnections among economy,

society, and environment

Equitable distribution of resources and opportunities


However, different ways of defining sustainability are

useful for different situations and different purposes.

For this reason, various groups have created

definitions of:

Sustainability and sustainable development

Sustainable community and society

Sustainable business and production

Sustainable agriculture

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Since you are here to be an Engineer or

Technologist, so:

Our emphasis should be on Sustainable

“Engineering and Technology”


The concept of "sustainability" linked to human

development originated in the 1970s with books such as

Goldsmith's "Blueprint for Survival" (1972) and the Club of

Rome's "Limits to Growth" (1972).

In the same year 1972, the United Nations Conference on

the Human Environment, in Stockholm put the spotlight on

the reconciliation of environment and economic

development.

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In 1987, the term sustainable development

entered into the political arena with the

publication by the World Commission on

Environment and Development (WCED) of its

report " Our Common Future" [more commonly

known as "the Brundtland Report"].


“Sustainable development is development

that meets the needs of the present

without compromising the ability of future

generations to meet their own needs”

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In 1992, the UN Conference on

Environment and Development (UNCED), or

the "Earth Summit", in Rio de Janeiro,

agreed on a Declaration setting out 27

principles supporting sustainable

development.


The Summit also agreed a plan of action, Agenda

21, and recommended that all countries produce

national sustainable development strategies.

A special UN Commission on Sustainable

Development was created.

Also in 1992, the EU adopted its Fifth Environmental

Action Program, called "Towards Sustainability".

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In 1999, the Amsterdam Treaty

enshrined sustainable development as

one of the core task of the European

Union (Article 2 of the EC Treaty).


In June 2001, the Gothenburg

European Council adopted the

Commission's Sustainable Development

Strategy.

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From 26 August to 4 September 2002,

the Johannesburg Summit reviewed the

progress made on global sustainable

development since the Rio Summit.

Strategic Imperatives in BruntlandReport

The Bruntland report described seven strategic imperatives for

sustainable development:

1. reviving growth;

2. changing the quality of growth;

3. meeting essential needs for jobs, food, energy, water and

sanitation;

4. ensuring a sustainable level of population;

5. conserving and enhancing the resource base;

6. reorienting technology and managing risk;

7. merging environment and economics in decision-making.

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Principles of Sustainability described in Bruntland Report

1. Recognise your ability to act sustainably in all you do

2. Play an active role in promoting more sustainable practices

3. Through education, promote a behavioural change which

exemplifies sustainable practices

4. Do not compromise the possibilities of future generations through

unsustainable activities

5. Encourage consideration of alternative and more sustainable

solutions, strategies and perspectives in addressing concepts,

problems or issues in business, government and communities

Guiding Steps towards Sustainability described in Bruntland Report

1. Develop an environment which supports human

dignity through gender and racial equality and

promotes intergenerational respect.

2. Develop honesty and integrity in daily life.

3. Encourage the fair distribution of wealth.

4. Work to strengthen local communities and

safeguard the health and safety of all.

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5. Commit to maintaining and enhancing the integrity

and biodiversity of the natural environment

6. Use natural resources, such as water and land

wisely and aim to reduce consumption.

7. Refuse, reduce, reuse, repair and recycle.

8. Where possible buy “green” products, locally

produced with reduced packaging.


9. Understand the synergies between advances in technology

and behavioural change to achieve sustainability.

10. Encourage ethical business practices.

11. Develop business strategies which promote good corporate

governance.

12. Encourage financial success through openness and

transparency.

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A more recent definition

A more recent – and broader – definition is the

following of 1996:

The concept of sustainability relates to the

maintenance and enhancement of

environmental, social and economic resources,

in order to meet the needs of current and future

generations.

Definition of Sustainability

“The ability to

continue a defined

behavior indefinitely”

“Meet the needs of the present withoutcompromising the ability of future generations to meettheir own needs”

Sustainability

Sustainablepractices

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Components of Sustainability

The three components of sustainability are:

1. Environmental sustainability

It requires that natural capital remains intact.

This means that the source and sink functions of

the environment should not be degraded.


Therefore, the extraction of renewable resources

should not exceed the rate at which they are

renewed, and the absorptive capacity to the

environment to assimilate wastes should not be

exceeded.

Furthermore, the extraction of non-renewable

resources should be minimized and should not

exceed agreed minimum strategic levels.

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2. Social sustainability

Which requires that the cohesion of society and

its ability to work towards common goals be

maintained.

Individual needs, such as those for health and

well-being, nutrition, shelter, education and

cultural expression should be met.


3. Economic sustainability

Which occurs when development, which moves

towards social and environmental sustainability,

is financially feasible.

Source: Gilbert, Stevenson, Girardet, Stren, 1996

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Objectives of Sustainable Development

3 main

objective

of SD

Economic Objective (Increased efficiency and growth)

Social Objective(Reduce

poverty/increased equity)

Environmental Objective

(Management of natural resources)

•Income distribution•Employment•Targeted assistance

•Environmental assessment•Valuation•Internationalism

•Popular participation•Consultation•Pluralism

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Sustainable Society

The Natural Step Framework's definition of

sustainability includes four system conditions

(scientific principles) that lead to a sustainable

society.

These conditions, that must be met in order to

have a sustainable society, are as listed on the

next slide.

Sustainable Society

In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to

systematically increasing:

1. concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth's

crust;

2. concentrations of substances produced by society;

3. degradation by physical means and, in that society

4. the ability for humans to meet their needs is not

systematically undermined.

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Sustainable Society

Referring to the basic rights of existence («all

beings have the equal right to live on the earth,

to develop themselves and carry out their

tasks»),

a sustainable living can also be defined as a

life where the basic rights of existence are

respected.

Sustainable Society

In this philosophy, the Earth is regarded as a being

and not as „matter".

Therefore when the basic rights of existence are

followed, the above mentioned conditions for

sustainability are all automatically fulfilled.

Sustainability follows automatically and imperatively

from respecting the basic rights of existence.

http://timeforchange.org/basisofbeing.html







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Sustainable Society

In the discussion of this cosmic law , we

have seen that the more consistently a

human being „lives" the basic rights of

existence, the closer he comes to his

objective of perpetual harmony and peace

within himself and his environment.

Sustainable Society

Therefore it is also possible to conclude:

Only through a sustainable living it is

possible to reach the highest of all

human goals, to permanently be able to

experience inner peace, happiness and

harmony (self-realization).

http://timeforchange.org/plausibility-basic-rights-of-existence









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Sustainable Society

Sustainable development terminology

Ecology

Ecology is the scientific study of the relation of

living organisms with each other and their surroundings.

Ecosystems

Ecosystems are defined by a web, community, or network of

individuals that arrange into a self-

organized and complex hierarchy of pattern and process.

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Ecosystems create a biophysical feedback between

living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components

of an environment that generates and regulates

the biogeochemical cycles of the planet.

Ecosystems provide goods and services

that sustain human societies and general well-

being.


Ecosystems are sustained by biodiversity within

them.

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the full-scale of life and its processes,

including genes, species and ecosystems forming

lineages that integrate into a complex

and regenerative spatial arrangement of types,

forms, and interactions

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Ecological Footprint

The ecological footprint is a measure of

human demand on the Earth's ecosystems.

It compares human demand with

planet Earth's ecological capacity to

regenerate.


Ecological deficit

the amount by which the Ecological Footprint of a

population exceeds the biological capacity of the

space available to that population.

The national ecological deficit measures the amount

by which the country’s footprint (plus the country’s

share of biodiversity responsibility) exceeds the

ecological capacity of that nation.

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Embodied energy – the energy used during its entire life cycle

for manufacturing, transporting, using and disposing.

Environmental responsibility – as outlined in Agenda 21

is: “the responsible and ethical management of products and

processes from the point of view of health, safety and

environmental aspects. Towards this end, business and industry

should increase self-regulation, guided by appropriate codes,

charters and initiatives integrated into all elements of business

planning and decision-making, and fostering openness and

dialogue with employees and the public.”


Overshoot – the situation when human demand exceeds nature’s

supply at the local, national or global scale. According to William

Catton, it is “growth beyond an area’s carrying capacity, leading

to crash.”

Precautionary approach – the essence of the precautionary

approach is given in Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration, which

states; “where there are threats of serious or irreversible

damage, lack of scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason

for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental

degradation.”

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Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) – is “a

structured, proactive process to strengthen the role of

environmental issues in strategic decision making” (Tonk and

Verheem, 1998). SEA aims to integrate environmental

(biophysical, social and economic) considerations into the earliest

stages of policy, plan and programme development (Sadler,

1995). It is therefore a process of integrating the concept of

sustainability into strategic decision-making.

Waste factor – the ratio between the quantity of prime resource

compared to the quantity of output.


It represents the amount of biologically

productive land and sea area needed to

regenerate the resources a

human population consumes and to absorb

and render harmless the corresponding

waste.

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SD Indicators

The United Nations Commission for Sustainable

Development has prepared Indicators of

Sustainable Development as a holistic and

consistent method for monitoring progress

towards sustainable development to assist

decision-makers and to increase focus on

achieving sustainable development.

SD Indicators

The indicators recognize the social,

environmental and economic components of

sustainable development as a means of

arriving at a broader, more complete

appreciation of communal development.

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SD Indicators

The UN Commission on Sustainable Development

(UNCSD) at its Third Session in April 1995

developed a working list of 134 indicators that were

subsequently tested and improved upon at national

levels.

A revised set of 58 indicators and methodology

sheets was prepared and is available for all countries

to use.

Development Impacts

The pursuit of sustainable development

brings the construction industry, and

specifically the building industry component

thereof, into sharp relief.

The built environment is a major

component of contemporary life.

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Development Impacts

Almost half the world’s population

(47,2%) is now urbanized and by 2050 that

proportion will have reached two-thirds.

The urban population of the United

Kingdom is already at 89,5 percent.

Development Impacts

Construction constitutes more than half of total

national capital investment in most countries, and

construction can amount to as much as 10 percent

of GDP.

It is estimated that the industry employs about 111

million people globally, and accounting for almost 28

percent of all industrial employment, is the biggest

industrial employer worldwide.

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Development Impacts

Construction accounts for 7 percent of total

employment with 75 percent of all construction

workers found in developing countries.

Typically over 90 percent of workers are

employed in micro firms with less than 10

persons.

Development Impacts

Construction activity is a consumer of materials and

scarce resources (water and energy), is a significant

contributor to global warming emissions (including

CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels), contributes to

air pollution (smoke and dust pollution), generates

vast quantities of waste, contaminates the soil, and

destroys existing vegetation.

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Development Impacts

Poverty is recognized as an important cause of environmental

degradation and therefore recognizes that economic

development has a crucial role to play in contributing to

poverty alleviation.

“The critical issues on which the debate has come to focus are,

therefore, the uneven spatial distribution of population relative

to natural carrying capacities, international interdependencies

in resource utilization and the extent as well as degree of

inefficient or irrational use of environmental resources.

Development Impacts

The global intervention required to redress

this imbalance has to do with managing the

utilization of natural resources correctly.

This management requirement has come to

be termed sustainable development.

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Development Impacts

Its objectives are quite concrete: development only

takes place if the resource harvest rates are at levels

no higher than managed or natural regeneration

rates permit, and the use of the environment as a

waste sink occurs only on the basis that waste

disposal rates should not exceed the managed or

natural assimilation capacity of the environment.

Did You Know

Approximately 1.6 million single-use pens are discarded each year in the

United States.

24 trees are cut down to make a ton of virgin printing and office paper.

A ton of paper made from 100% recycled paper, as compared to virgin

paper, saves the equivalent of 4,100 kilowatt-hours of energy, 7,000

gallons of water, 60 pounds of air emissions, and 3 cubic yards of landfill

space.

By sending their printer and copying cartridges for remanufacturing, U.S.

businesses could save $1.5 billion and at least 100,000 barrels of oil

annually.

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Did You Know

Standard incandescent bulbs have changed very little from

Thomas Edison’s first light bulb in 1879.

Only 10% of the energy used by these standard bulbs

contributes to light; the other 90% is wasted as heat.

Advanced technology enables compact fluorescent lights

(CFLs) to use 75% less energy than a standard

incandescent bulb and last up to 10 times longer.

Over the life of one CFL, you can avoid replacing up to 13

incandescent bulbs!

Did You Know

Water covers 70% of the earth’s surface, at least

97% of the world’s water is salty and undrinkable.

Another 2% of the earth’s water is polluted, polar

ice, or otherwise inaccessible and undrinkable.

That leaves approximately 1% of the earth’s water

for humans to use.

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Sustainability Theories

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