Sustainability Introduction Summary

Summary: An Introduction to Sustainability (Martin Mulligan) Sustainable Development Universiteit Utrecht 47 pag. Document shared on https://www.docsit...

Summary: An Introduction to Sustainability (Martin Mulligan) Sustainable Development Universiteit Utrecht 47 pag. Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/  Summary an introduction to sustainability by Martin Mulligan By GSS students ’17-18 Index Chapter 1 – Introduction 2 Chapter 2 – Global emergence of the sustainability concept 3 Chapter 3 – Consumption and Consumerism 5 Chapter 4 – Global Challenges as Wicked Problems 10 Chapter 5 – Energy and Society 12 Chapter 6 – Sustainability models, concepts and principles 15 Chapter 7 – Risk and resilience 17 Chapter 8 – Environmental dimensions of sustainability 21 Chapter 9 – Social dimensions of sustainability 23 Chapter 10 – Personal dimensions 26 Chapter 11 – Taking action 29 Chapter 12 – Introduction to assessment and monitoring tools 35 Chapter 13 – Focusing on water 38 Chapter 14 – Food & Agriculture 40 Chapter 15 – The urban challenge 44 Chapter 16 – Rethinking waste 46 1 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ 1. Introduction - The global Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 is probably the high watermark of global optimism about our capacity to successfully meet the challenges of global sustainability challenges. - Global humanity knows what needs to be done but lacks the political will to do what is needed. - Rachel Carson is widely acknowledged as being the mother of the modern environmental movement which started in the USA before achieving global reach and significance in the 70s. - Sustainability needs to be a daily preoccupation for all of us because our capacity to live sustainably begins with our existing environmental impacts and our modes of interacting with other people and society at large. - A lot of people make sustainable claims and talk about environmental issues, but are not held accountable for these words. RMIT Sustainability Principles: 1. Acknowledge interconnections at all levels within the biosphere. 2. Acknowledge that there are limits to growth. 3. Remember that prevention is better than cure. 4. Work to improve intergenerational equity. 5. Face up to the challenges of intergenerational equity. 6. Respect requisite diversity in both nature and culture. 7. Work to relocalisation with global connectedness. 8. Move from consumerism to quality-of-life goals. 9. Learn how to travel hopefully in a world of uncertainty. - These principles aim to foster ambition and a desire for improvement. Definitions: - Biosphere = zone surrounding the planet in which living organisms thrive. It extends form just below the surface of the planet to the part of the atmosphere which contains sufficient oxygen to sustain life. - Triple bottom line = the need to seek a balance between economic development, environmental protection and social well-being. - Discourse = term used to refer to ongoing debates on a particular topic. - Limits to growth = at global level, the biosphere imposes certain limits to economic growth; limits that are being exceeded in relation to the emission of greenhouse gases. - Resilience = the capacity to bounce back, it implies strength as well as adaptability. 2 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ 2. Global emergence of the sustainability concept The Brundtland Report (1987) firmly established the principle that the challenge to achieve sustainability involves an interplay between environmental and social factors. It coined the term ‘environmentally sustainable development (ESD) and defined this as development which ‘meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs’. -> seen as a human-centred definition of sustainability -> introduced as the innovative ‘intergenerational equity’ principle. The Brundtland Report shone a spotlight on the intractable problem of global poverty because it stressed that poor people and poor communities are often most vulnerable to environmental hazards and, at the same time, they lack the resources to implement nature conservation strategies. Furthermore, long-running regional and civil conflicts (often triggered by competition for resources) make it even harder The strength of the Brundtland Report was that it demonstrated that global environmental sustainability is bound up with the need to radically reduce poverty and disadvantage. Rachel Carson: Her book, Silent Spring, had a big impact. Readers were startled to learn that the most commonly and widely used pesticide in US agriculture (DDT) was turning up everywhere. In her book, she revealed that human action always has unforeseen ecological consequences and she demonstrated that inorganic compounds can enter a system of ecological flows that begin locally before spreading across vast distances. Public concern triggered by her book is said to have led to the formation of the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, the first of his kind in the world. ‘Earth Summit’ : 1992 in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro Public affair which became the biggest UN gathering ever held outside New York. Many feared that the expectations were unrealistic and there was criticism about choosing to hold it in a city with some of the worst urban slums and was responsible for alarming rates of deforestation. However, it produced some important outcomes Ø It heightened sense of responsibility Ø Increased optimism about the possibility for global agreements and global action. Achievements of the 1992 Earth Summit - Action plan for environmental sustainable development which bore the name Agenda 21. - Local Agenda 21: aimed at devolving responsibilities for ESD to sub-national levels of government, putting this matter on the agenda for local government for the first time. - UN Framework Convention on Climate Change -> binding protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions for train. - Development of an UN Convention of Biological Diversity - Global Environment Facility (GEF)-> support ESD initiatives in ‘developing nations’. Local residents of Rio were excluded from many parts of the city to make way for the influx of international visitors. This symbolizes the fact that the poor of the world have little choice but to watch and wait for meaningful global action. Earth Summit in 1992 was a big success. Rio+20 in 2012 however was a disappointment. It did not set in train any new global initiatives and an earlier promise to set up a new global fund for reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing nations was dropped. 3 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ Montreal; 1987 Examine ways to rapidly phase out the use of CFC (chlorofluorocarbons) gases. -> Montreal Protocol. The relative success of the Montreal Protocol shows that effective global action can be taken when there is sufficient political will. However, this was relatively easy because it had a clearly identified cause. Other global environmental convert, notably the onset of human-induced global climate change has more complex and diffuse origins and technological solutions are much harder to find. Kyoto 1997 This conference set targets for a steady reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases. While the Kyoto gathering was primarily targeted at the governments of the world’s developed nations, the governments of nations with rapidly growing economies (BRIC: Brazil, Russia, India and China) were invited to Copenhagen. As with Rio+20 in 2012, the Copenhagen Summit undoubtedly suffered from unrealistic expectations and its achievement were underrated. Such global gatherings undoubtedly have an important role to play in putting pressure on participating nations to take more meaningful action. However, the political will to act may only begin to match expectations when national governments come under more sustained pressure from informed and concerned citizens and from global movements. Globalisation is often used to refer to the rise of an increasingly integrated global economy that has been taking shape since the 1980s. Many of the big sustainability challenges have become more globally integrated and complex; posing the need for more international or global action rather than action by national or sub-national governments and government agencies. Environmental sustainability will commonly begin with a consideration of local impact before considering wider, sometimes global, implications. This suggest a need to develop new ways to link local and global action for change. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is widely used to identify efforts made by corporations to seriously address the social and environmental consequences of their business activities. Intergenerational equity to encourage greater consideration of the needs of people living in the future. Intergenerational equity by highlighting the importance of reducing the gap between the world’s rich and poor. UN Millennium Development Goals Eight goals that were adopted at a special UN Millennium Summit held in New York in May 2000. 4 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ 3. Consumption and Consumerism Introduction - Growing global population + spread of mass consumption (driven by increasing use of energy) > more unsustainable consumption - With a population of 9 billion people in 2050, we will need three planets to sustain our current consumption levels (Global Footprint Network) - More consumption has led to several negative effects: o Reductions in biodiversity o Nature resource depletion o Waste streams o Health effects > 65 per cent of Americans are overweight or obese o ‘Cult of the individual’: decline in social participation The Emergence of ‘hyper consumption’ - Lipovetsky (French philosopher): Development of ‘consumer capitalism’ o Consists of 3 stages: § Fast increase of low sold standard goods around 1880 till WW2 § Rapid global increase of availability of consumer goods with a short lifetime § Hyper consumption, a rapid expansion in the quantity of consumer goods (1970) Ø Hyper consumption leads to individualism > people tend to consume more and more to create their own happiness Geographical and time constraints on consumerism dissolve -> over consumerism as a way of life: self-animating force, consuming your way to a better life. Hyper consumption not equally spread; Per capita energy consumption (kg of oil) is a good overall indicator of consumption levels compared to nations. i.e. people in North America use around 35 time as much energy as people living in Bangladesh. Individualism and cocooning - Cocooning: People spend most of their non-work time in their own homes with their own family, friends etc. Also, people are living in the outer margins of growing cities. o This leads to (more traveling time) less connections with their neighbours and the local community Consequences - losing sight of the outer world/ecological flows -> ignoring questions as ‘where does water come from?’/’where do waste products go to?’ -> screening out environmental and social intrusion. ‘home as safe haven’ -> unconscious of their environmental impacts. 5 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ + private home to feel safe from social threats /sense of not belonging. High dense urban areas create possibilities for efficiencies in the provision of energy, food, water and waste management - Environmental, social and personal costs of hyper consumption: 1. Unsustainable use of natural resources and environmental pollution. 2. Loss of global biodiversity and habitats for non-human species. 3. Increasing emissions of ‘greenhouse gasses’ that are leading to global warming. 4. Rising economic costs related to increasing production and transport of goods and the disposal of increasing volumes of waste. 5. A loss of social connectedness and a sense of belonging to community. 6. Stresses associated with working hard to sustain high levels of consumption, including the problem of being ‘time poor’. 7. A relentless feeling of being on a ‘treadmill’ of never-ending consumption. *Social flow = movement of people, goods, info, ideas *Ecological flow = water, energy, nutrients Planned obsolescence and the generation of desire Planned obsolescence: economies are driven by growth, so they make efforts to reduce the ‘lifespan’ of a product, so that they need to be replaced. o It has become cheaper to replace rather than repair clothing and footwear o Consumers are led to believe that they need the latest consumer goods Addictive consumption - The cycles of consumption and purchases lead to addictive consumption o Example: If we buy the Samsung galaxy S7, we meet our needs, but when a new cycle of consumption, Samsung galaxy S8 is created, we think that that new good will meet our needs, which will lead to addictive consumption o Maslow’s pyramid of needs: Self–actualisation have nothing to do with consumption > we need to think of other ways to satisfy. ‘commodified consumption’ /commodities= the process of goods and services turning tradable items within a market economy, within an endless cycle of production, and consumption. (Ehrenfeld). This term is being used by Ehrenfeld to refer to the cycles of purchase and consumption of products which seem to address our perceived needs. However, the cycle is endless and our needs seem never to be met. -> Addictive consumption; commodified consumption does not always produce addiction, since we also purchase commodities that satisfy authentic needs. However endless cycle of purchase and consumption can make us think that new and more product will meet our needs even better. 6 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ ‘We have become addicted to having rather than being.’ (Oliver James) -> We need to take the time to contemplate other ways to achieve life satisfaction. We need to take time to understand the difference between needs and wants, and to consider personal costs linked to being trapped within the endless cycle of addictive consumption. Maslow’s hierarchy of Human Needs 1. physiological needs (basic needs) 2. feeling reasonable safe and secure (basic needs) 3. the need of a sense of belonging within networks of personal relationships (psychological needs) 4. self-esteem; measured by prestige or feelings of accomplishment (psychological needs) 5. self-actualisation= the extent to which any of us might feel that we are able to achieve our full potential, partly by having the opportunity to participate in creative activities. (self-fulfilment needs) Criticisms for the pyramid: cannot do justice to complex interplays of needs and aspirations, to ways we may find satisfaction and fulfilment by finding creative or sustainable ways to meet basic needs. *The notion of ‘self-actualisation’ overlaps with the search for ‘authenticity’ (Ehrenfeld), and suggests that the deepest way to achieve fulfilment have little/nothing to do with the consumption of goods and services produced by others. Ethical consumption and voluntary simplicity + long-term benefits of individualized consumption can enable us to exercise more conscious control over what we consume. 7 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ Ethical consumption and voluntary simplicity Ways to achieve better personal and environmental outcome 1. Ethical consumption: choosing wisely about your consumption - The desire to avoid consumer goods that are produced in conditions where the producers are treated badly and trapped in endless poverty. Consequences: Growth in individual concerns about healthy living. The introduction of laws and regulations by governments, to ensure properly labelled products with information about what the product contains and where it comes from. Future; star rating of products? (measurement of environmental impacts). Growth of global networks and projects, i.e. Fair Trade 2. voluntary simplicity: Learn to live with less 1. ‘downshifters’: i.e. buying an inexpensive car. Mostly high-income people, who may be not able to sustain a low-consumption lifestyle. 2. ‘strong simplifiers’: radical decisions such as giving up well-paid job, moving to more modest housing. 3. ‘simple living movement’: a global movement, with a frugal lifestyle. Easier to sustain a lifestyle, when you are part of a global movement. 3. Collaborative consumption: refers to efforts to increase collaboration or cooperation in the purchase and consumption of goods and services; most commonly driven by the view that individual consumption is often wasteful and environmentally damaging. i.e. swapping goods and sharing goods; carpooling ensuring that unwanted goods can be delivered to people in need + Reducing costs and wastage + Social benefits; doing more things with other people, rather than alone. *New communication technologies have given collaborative consumption schemes a greater chance of success. 4. relocalisation: globalisation has gone too far, need to seek locally produced food e.g. (might undermine developing countries and not suitable for ecology though, balance between local and global) - Local production of food and other goods do not always have the best social and environmental outcome; reductions in global trade undermine employment in developing countries and it may not suit local ecological realities conditions. ‘’ Real people are caught somewhere between the extremes of the local and the global. Therefore, the consumer culture is messy, accidental, contingent, in a state of improvisation, collapse and renewal.” (Richard Wilk) 8 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ Promoting behaviour change ethical consumption + voluntary simplicity + collaborative consumption = focus on enabling people to exercise their personal consumer power, to achieve better personal, social and environmental outcomes. Tim Jackson: governments need to create a policy framework that both encourages people to break their existing consumption habits and penalises wasteful consumption. Thinking about what government agencies can do to facilitate a wider public shift towards reduced consumption; promotion of behavioural change. For example, the Es model, advocated by the UK department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Ensuring that incentive structures and institutional rules favour more sustainable behaviours; Enabling access to pro-environmental (and pro-social) lifestyle choices; Engaging people in initiatives to help themselves; and Exemplifying the desired changes within government’s own policies and practices. 9 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ 4. Global Challenges as Wicked Problems - It is useful to think of climate change as a ‘wicked’ problem of unprecedented scope and likely duration. Wicked problems are commonly symptoms of other problems, and there’s no true/false solution for them. We can try to understand them better and not let them get the better of us. - There’re three big global challenges: the emergence of human-induced global climate change, the looming spectre of ‘Peak Oil’ and the intransigence of global poverty. More are: deforestation, desertification, declining soil fertility, declines in global fish stock, trans border pollution, unresolved wars and conflicts, refugees, nuclear power. - The world is rapidly approaching a point of peak in the extraction and processing of oil (first crisis 1973), and companies have to move to remote areas to distract ‘difficult’ oil to sustain demand. - Global poverty was, like oil, a key barrier to sustainability in the Brundtland Report. - The World Bank states that the efforts to eliminate poverty have some success. However, income is a very inadequate poverty indicator and the workings of the globalized market-driven economy appear to be making poverty even worse in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The overall gap between rich and poor seems to be increasing. - Human industrial and farming activity is contributing to an observable rise in global atmospheric and surface temperatures by pumping greenhouse gases into the upper atmosphere. - Increasing heat creates greater climate volatility, meaning that future predictions are likely to be less reliable. However, the signs of change are accumulating with record low levels of Arctic ice, increasingly intense and frequent floods, droughts and ‘extreme weather events’. - Incremental shifts in climate can actually increase the variability of the weather patterns. - Storms are often formed in the interplay between ocean currents and the movement of water molecules in the atmosphere. A warming of climate systems makes such interplays even more dynamic and less predictable. - Natural systems rarely change in a linear way and ecologists have long known that a seemingly stable ecosystem can suddenly experience a devastating ‘tipping point’. We need to be prepared for the unexpected, but that runs counter to our cherished belief that scientific knowledge can give us ever-greater certainty about how our world operates. - Ecologists have long understood that incremental changes to a self-regulating ecosystem can eventually overwhelm its capacity to adapt to the changes; it reaches a tipping point at which the functioning of the system undergoes rapid change. - Since 2006, there has been a growing global consensus on the fact that human-induced climate change is already taking place and that it will require significant change at all levels of society, from the local to the global. - The idea of avoiding dangerous climate change has taken the focus away from a need to adapt to the onset of climate change or the need to question more deeply the beliefs and assumptions that have enabled us to ignore warnings about our global environmental impacts for so long. - Climate change can be seen as an opportunity to open up meaningful dialogues about 10 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/  problematic cultural beliefs and practices and the need to make radical changes to the ways in which we live. - Income does not reflect numerous causes of poverty and disadvantage, such as access to adequate food, clean water, health care and education. Entrenched poverty is spread very unevenly across the world and there is a lot of data suggesting that entrenched poverty is getting worse and that more people are struggling with rising costs of living. - Poverty masks a complexity of forms and causes of environmental, economic and social disadvantages and some economic development strategies aimed at reducing poverty can make things worse. - There can be no single strategy to reduce global poverty, and the fact that economic ‘development’ can increase the gap between the rich and the poor means that global poverty should be seen as a wicked problem, rather than one which can be resolved. - The hallmark of a caring and inclusive society will be that it pays constant attention to emergence and/or continuation of poverty traps. - By focusing initially on factors that seem to exclude certain people and communities from opportunities available to other people and communities it may then become possible to focus on strategies for inclusion, or pathways towards greater participation. - People living within poor communities are likely to have the best understanding of the various barriers to greater social inclusion. Definitions: - Wicked problems = complex problems that have no single complete or trial-and-error solutions; problems which may emerge as symptoms of other complex problems. - IPCC= Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. - World Bank poverty line= the concept of a poverty line has been in use since the early twentieth century. Extreme poverty means that people exist on less than 1.25 dollar a day. - Desertification= land degradation in which an area loses its natural reserves of water and existing forms of vegetation and wildlife. - Trans border pollution= pollution that cannot be contained within national borders, or waste materials that are deliberately transported beyond the borders of the country in which they were generated. - Climatology = subset of atmospheric science and physical geography devoted to understanding the functioning of the Earth’s climate systems. - Mitigation= attempts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. - Adaptation = refers to action taken to adapt to the impacts of climate change. - Greenhouse gases= group of gases that have the ability to absorb and re-radiate solar energy. Water vapour, ozone, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. - Greenhouse effect = certain gases accumulating in the upper atmosphere could contribute to global warming by trapping solar radiation within the atmosphere. - Ocean currents= can be caused by wind or by movement arising from density differences in water caused by differences in temperature or salinity. - Salinization = increasing concentrations of water soluble salts in soil which can impede plant growth. - Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy= independent research centre that works with a number of German universities, Wuppertal is located in the Wupper Valley not far from the large city of Dusseldorf; the institute was set up in 1991. 11 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ 5. Energy and Society Introduction Access to sources of energy is of critical importance for life. The ultimate source of energy for life on Earth is the sun. Animals rely on the capacity of plants to trap solar energy in order to produce complex compounds made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms which then serve as the fuel for animal bodily functions through the processes of digestion. Humans burn plant materials to produce heat energy, which has extended to using fossilised plant material to produce the heat that can be turned into electricity or used to drive motor vehicles. Burning fossil fuels gives of ‘excess’ heat and the gas emissions known to produce the global greenhouse effect. The cost of accessing enough oil to satisfy the growing demand for it would lead to relative oil shortages and big increases in oil prices. The Peak Oil warning refers to the availability of ‘cheap oil’. The growing complexity of the systems we are using to satisfy the needs and demands of human consumption is resulting in an ever-diminishing return on energy invested. Energy and ‘Progress’ There are direct connections between energy use and indicators of social development, including life expectancy, infant mortality, doctors per 100,00 people, Nobel prizes per head of population, and levels of meat consumption. Without easy access to dependable and ever-increasing supplies of energy we could not lead the lives we do. Energy and Economic Growth Economic growth is dependent on energy and so belief in economic growth implies an ability to increase supply and use of energy. Given the centrality of oil for all forms of production and transport, rising oil prices increase inflation and this, in turn, deflates public spending. Oil has become the critical energy source for all forms of manufacture and without cheap oil our economies would grind to a halt. Cultural ideas of ‘Progress’ The link between hyper consumption and our sense of personal well-being helps to explain the cultural challenges posed by the need to reduce oil dependence. Energy-driven complexity: the consumption of increasing amounts of energy to drive increasingly complex systems, such as modern food production systems. Focusing on food A steady reduction in demand for human labour in agriculture coincides with the increasing demand for labour in industrial manufacture and this sparked the process of urbanisation which now means that more people globally live in cities than in rural areas. The switch in sources of energy- from human labour to the use of mechanical engines- not only changed where people live but also what they do on a daily basis. Industrial farming is highly successful at producing more food from the same amount of agricultural land, and this has reduced the spectre of famine countries. Many countries have moved from conditions of food scarcity to an overabundance of food and calorie-rich diets are now causing a global 12 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ epidemic in diet-related diseases. Modern farms can produce more but use about 20x as much energy to produce a certain quantity of food energy compared to a traditional farm (10 units of energy for everyone unit of food energy) Environmental and social costs of complex food production systems Modern food distribution systems have become highly efficient they have become incredibly expensive in terms of energy use. 20% of energy used to put our food on our plate is actually used for production because the other 80% is used for transport, processing, packaging, marketing, preparation and storage. There is an increasing use of fertilisers and pesticides and the tendency towards monoculture farming, which has disastrous long-term consequences for soil fertility and biodiversity. Genetic engineering has been introduced to increase agricultural productivity but there can be unforeseen dangers in tampering with natural genetic diversity. Efficiency depends on speed and the implementation of ‘just in time’ principles for responding to market needs. Surges in global oil prices quickly flow through price increases for food and this has particularly serious consequences for poor people and poor communities (increasing food vulnerability) Back to Hubbert’s predictions The peak of the curve is the point at which demand for oil outstrips the ability to produce it at reasonable cost and not the point at which supplies begin to dry up. Increasing global demand is forcing producers to tap into smaller, more remote and low-quality supplies. Increasing global demand is being driven by rapid industrialisation in countries such as China, India and to a lesser extent, Brazil and Indonesia. Energy Return on investment The idea of Peak Oil relates to the human tendency to exhaust supplies of resources that are easiest to reach. This has led to work on EROI (Energy return on investment). This involves a calculation of how much energy it costs to utilise a particular energy source and the results are revealing. EROI of oil changed from 100:1 towards 15:1. This trend reflects an increasing reliance on offshore and Deepwater oil drilling because it is more difficult and expensive to operate offshore and the operations are more exposed to disruption caused by bad weather. EROI ratings for energy sources other than hydrocarbons commonly show that the return on investment tends to be higher even if the total energy output is not high. Coal has a high EROI due to its cheap production despite being a major contributor to the generation of greenhouse gases. Extending the chase for hydrocarbons The effort involves squeezing oil out of low-grade sources such as tar sands or shale ‘fracking’ and extracting gas from extensive coal seams, and using biofuels such as ethanol as a supplement. A massive tar sand operation led to extensive clear-felling of native forests and the pollution of waterways. The EROI rating for tar sand oil extraction is very low and the social and environmental costs for energy return both seem very high. A growing global market for ethanol has resulted in deforestation and the conversion of productive farmland for sugarcane production. 13 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ Pathways out of oil dependency Many cities are trying to facilitate urban agriculture. The need to reduce ‘food miles’ has been circulating in sustainability literature since the 1990s. Transport is however only one aspect of food production that needs to be rethought. The growing popularity of ‘farmers markets’ suggest that the desire to eat ‘fresh’ food that has not been transported and stored for any length of time is gaining some momentum. We do not need to dispense with all the benefits of globalisation in order to reduce carbon dependency but we will need to make substantial social and cultural changes to reduce our dangerous dependence on hydrocarbons. This requires a degree of ‘relocalisation’ of economic and social life. 14 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ 6. Sustainability models, concepts and principles Introduction Triple Bottom Line (PPP) - The three-sector model — environmental, economic and social. - Introduced in the Brundtland Report (1987) - First time noticed that economic development has to satisfy the other two sectors as well. Problems Triple Bottom Line - Hard to compare i.e. economic result with effects in the social field. - Conventional economic thinking dominates the three-sector model; narrow focus. The 'Nested Diagram' Model There is no separation between the three sectors. Economy within social domain within environment. Unwanted effect: economy is seen as starting point Adding a Fourth Domain What is in the 'social' sector in the three-sector model? Fourth Pillar: Cultural vitality, since communities have a great value. Fourth Domain: RMIT separates 'social' in 'political' and 'cultural'. 'Environmental' is named 'Ecological' to focus on the interaction between humans and non-humans. The Social Ecology Model - Stuart Hill Environmental Social: economic, cultural, political Personal The focus on the personal makes that the individual does not lose sight of the big global picture. Sustainability is for all of us. From 'Efficiency' to 'Redesign' Efficiency is not enough if the original design is not optimised. Start thinking about how to redesign personal practices. Systems Thinking (+- 1920) - Step back to get the bigger picture - Ludwig von Bertalanffy: General Systems Theory. Systems are constructed similarly. A system has to have feedback loops to be self-regulating. Open system — many inputs and disturbances Difference hard and soft system - Hard system is predictable. - Soft system: Unpredictable because humans / animals make decisions that influence others. 'Soft Systems Methodology' — first map a rich picture. 15 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ Double feedback loops Donella Meadows Linear conceptions because of two-dimensional frame. Model is never the truth, but can be a useful starting point. Ecological Thinking 'Separation of the Human system' and the 'Natural system’. Scales Human and natural 'boundaries’ 16 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ 7. Risk and Resilience Introduction - Resilience (chemical): substances that have a capacity to return to their original form after being bent, stretched or compressed. - Resilience (ecological): what makes some species or ecosystems more adaptable to change than others and why do some individuals seem more capable of bouncing back after shocks or setbacks. It’s important to look for ways to minimise risk and hazard exposure: ‘’refers to human exposure to materials or processes that have a known potential to damage health or cause injury.’’ Ecologists have focused on the kinds of properties that make some living systems more resilient: summarised in book by Brian Walker and David Salt. Walker and Salt argue that principles of systemic resilience can be designed into the systems we create for human communities and the relevance of those principles will be explored in relation to impacts (e.g. hurricane Katrina). We need to learn the lessons of past disasters in order to give more substance to the rhetoric about disaster resilience. Risk Measurement and Management Risk exposure: human exposure to situation which may or may not damage health or cause injury. Reasons for concern: - Human induced hazards can no longer be contained to local regions. - Increased movement of people is increasing the threat of epidemics or pandemics of disease. - Social conflicts have spilled over national borders and have become globalised. - Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather. Driving factor of risk industry - Insurance companies cannot cope with increasing levels of hazard exposure Public authorities are concerned about being held accountable for increasing risk exposure à shift responsibility for risk management to private sector or community-based organisations. Risk industry: important techniques anticipating and assessing risks in advance à encouraged culture of extreme risk avoidance. 17 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ Cultural differences on risk and resilience In many non-western countries, the infrastructure would be deemed to be unsafe, there is a lower emphasis on public safety and risk avoidance. The risk management is seen as a responsibility for individuals. People who live in significant levels of risk are (often) more resilient. In Europe, its managed by public authorities whereas in less developed countries its individual responsibility. Hazard exposure and risk tolerance Often poor people and communities tend to live in areas where they are exposed to ‘natural’ hazards, they struggle to survive when the environmental disaster arrives. Much can be done to reduce hazard exposure of vulnerable people and communities to develop their own risk strategies: people may accept it in order to enjoy the benefits (living by the sea) or self-reliance, having a greater adaptive capacity. Poor people suffer more from natural disasters. à Much has to be done to reduce the hazard exposure of vulnerable people and communities across the globe (Adger, brown 2009). At the same time, exposure to risk can enable individuals and communities to develop their own risk management strategies. People may accept it in order to enjoy the benefits (living by the sea) or self-reliance. People in these situations tend to have a greater adaptive capacity. Back to beck and the risk society Beck (scientist): Rather than admitting that we have little choice other than learn how to live with increasing levels of risk, Beck argue that the response within western societies has been; 1. To ‘externalise’ risk through the implementation of management plans 2. To ‘individualise’ risk by using legal processes to settle questions of responsibility 3. For authorities to ‘minimise’ risk by suggesting that risk can be adequately managed Beck noted; ‘’No one should be exposed to new hazards without being told’’. Globalisation of risk will have a long-term positive effectà The inadequacies of prevailing risk management strategies will become increasingly apparent à will prompt a widespread desire to rethink attitudes to risk. Increasing global environmental risks might foster greater public awareness of how global ecological systems work (Beck 2005) Risk and innovation Major breakthroughs in human history have involved risk. Innovation often requires a leap of imagination. Innovation occurs when curiosity overrides the avoidance of risk. “The black swan effect”: we need to be much more attuned to the highly improbable or unforeseen outliers. We need to focus more on things we do not know and can only imagine rather than what we think we know, to embrace unpredictability rather than fear it. 18 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ ‘’We need to focus more on things we do not know and can only imagine rather than what we think we know.’’ Personal Resilience Perceptions can be socially amplified in the way that risk is discussed publicly in any particular society of culture. Slovic (2010): feelings associated with lived experiences of risk play a significant factor in the ways in which people weigh up the dangers and benefits associated with risk taking. It is the feeling of risk more than knowledge of possible dangers that influences risks tolerance, slovic argue, and this suggests that prevailing risk management or avoidance strategies are largely ineffective. If prevailing risk management strategies are doing more harm than good in teaching how to live in a risky world, then there is a need for a cultural shift in the way that risk is perceived within westering societies, in particular. Insights from ecology Why are particular communities of plants and animals more resilient to changing circumstances or perturbations than other? Focus on interaction between all components of a particular ecosystem. - Resilience (Walker and Salt): the ability of a system to absorb disturbance and still retain its basic function and structure. Resilient ecosystems tend to be non-hierarchical in form and yet they also feature high levels of mutual dependence between the different plants and animals that constitute to the system. When the system dynamics are thrown completely out of balance the tipping point (refers to a point at which incremental changes trigger a major change in the system) is reached. The ability to adapt requires diversity within the system and genetic variability which can result in hybrid species. Functional diversity is very important. Characteristics of resilient systems Resilient systems will always incorporate a fairly high degree of diversity, even if such diversity sometimes seems redundant to the immediate needs of the system. Diversity provides alternatives if particular features of a system fail to function effectively. A resilient system will sustain its functional diversity, even if this might appear to be wasteful in the short term. The danger created by not sustaining ‘functional diversity’ can be illustrated by noting that ‘monocrop’ agriculture leaves crops vulnerable to insect attacks and it depletes the fertility of the soil over time. Resilient systems display modularity rather than forms of hierarchy so that the system as a whole can continue to function even if particular parts of it fail. It makes sense, for example, to ensure that power supply to a big city is not centralised in particular forms of infrastructure in case any of it fails. 19 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/  It is important to know the difference between incremental changes – or ‘slow variables’ – and ‘thresholds’ of tipping points. Resilient systems can cope with the former but not necessarily the latter. A resilient system needs to have tight feedbacks so that all changes in circumstances and function are monitored. We need to know when a system is beginning to show signs of stress that might indicate an approaching threshold. Designing resilient human systems Many systems we design do not cope well with changes and human subjectivity sometimes makes it difficult to design functioning systems on a big scale. How to can humans learn from nature to deliberately design resilience into systems we create: 1. Avoid inflexible hierarchical structures 2. Introduce modularity 3. Create physical spaces and allow time for people to think creatively 4. Monitoring and effective communication 5. Give time to reflect 6. Balance between conservation and innovation Lessons from hurricane Katrina Hierarchical disaster planning and management failed. Little attempt was made to stop to rethink what was going wrong. Monitoring systems were not in place to ascertain whether the felt needs of disaster-affected people were being addressed. Communication systems were hierarchical and there were few opportunities for affected communities to learn from each other’s experiences. The social and cultural assets of a culturally diverse urban community were not sufficiently valued; emphasis on a new start for the city was lacking. Top-down approaches to the rebuilding effort divided the multiracial community, which exacerbated racial and cultural divisions. 20 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ 8. Environmental dimensions of sustainability Some continuing and rising global concerns. - Ecological flows: movement of water, nutrients and other materials through local and global ecosystems. - Human activities drive species to extinction, current extinction rates are 1,000 times higher than any such natural rate, almost 200 species extinct every year. - Global loss of forest was highest in 1990s, now it’s still 5.2 million hectares per year. - Desertification lead to loss of arable land. 52% of agriculture land is affected by soil erosion. - Water tables: boundary between dry ground and ground that is saturated with water that has penetrated into the ground. These water tables are failing. - Coral bleaching is becoming more frequent. From the global to the local. Focus on global concerns, ignores taking action on local levels. Changes on global levels effect local ecosystems. Act local to influence global. Ecological flows help to understand why this happens. Ecological flows. Movement of water, nutrients and other materials through local and global ecosystems (mostly cycles). Nitrogen or Carbon cycles are examples of ecological flows. The terms ‘sinks’ and ‘storage’ are weird in flows and cycles but help us understand what is happening. Carbon cycle: humans alter the balance between carbon ‘stored’ in marine and terrestrial plant matter compared to carbon ‘stored’ in gasses in atmosphere. Humans accelerate the flow of carbon into the atmosphere. Following the flows of water. Human waste effects the life of sea creatures à influence birds and other creatures, system misbalance. Water cycle very large, oceans, rivers, lakes, clouds etc. Understanding biodiversity. Darwin’s evolution theory explains why there are so many species. Biodiversity came up in the 1980s. 4 different forms of diversity: genetic, species, ecological and functional. Functional diversity: level of diversity required by a biological community to make it resilient to disturbance or capable of change and adaptation. Hybrid species occur where different ecosystems come together. Diversity is good, as long as they serve the same purpose in a system. Ecosystem services: all the benefits humans derive from the presence of healthy ecosystems. The Biosphere. Zone where all life exists. Earth is a planet with finite resources. 21 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ Revaluing ‘the commons’. Certain areas within the biosphere need to be set aside for the conservation of global biodiversity. The commons been used to refer to areas set aside for public benefit rather than private use. Resilient nature. Nature highly fragile. Emphasis on value wilderness, untouched nature. Wildlife also found in big cities, not only in remote forests. Nature is more resilient than we imagine. 22 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ 9. Social dimensions of sustainability Introduction The social ecology model of sustainability moves the functioning of the economy into the social domain, Karl Polanyi: economics must be embedded in culture and society. From the perspective of the global environment, economic planners need to put aside their discipline’s obsession with growth to consider limits and constrains. This chapter will argue that the functioning of the economy is only one dimension of social planning because it is also important to focus on cultural vitality and the politics of participation. The RMIT principles that underpin this discussion are: - acknowledge that there are limits to growth - remember that prevention is better than cure - work to improve intergenerational equity - face up the challenge of intergenerational equity - respect requisite diversity in nature and culture In summary, the chapter touches on: - The need to widen prevailing economic thought and action to ensure that it can deliver better outcomes in relation to both environmental and social well-being. - The need to make value judgements more transparent in policy-making, with a particular emphasis on increasing social inclusion and political participation. - The importance of cultural vitality as a measure of social well-being. - The need to constantly create and reinforce inclusive communities. The rise of environmental economics Kenneth Boulding: Economic theory needs to be far more attentive to the long-term social consequences of economic development. Economic growth is good because it helps people out of poverty, but: - It increases inequality and this makes people unhappy - There is no direct connection between economic growth and happiness - There are environmental costs Environmental economics: find ways to ensure that the environment can be given ‘value’ within economic policy and practice and that economic development should consciously aim to ‘improve’ the natural environment rather than result in resource depletion and environmental degradation. Often used in environmental economics: - Cost-benefit analysis (most used), tries to monetise both costs and benefits - Life-cycle analysis (LCA) o Responsible for introducing the term cradle-to-grave, focus on whole-of-life cycle production. However, this concept does not complete the cycle so there was suggested that it should be replaces with an emphasis on cradle-to-cradle production. 23 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/  o LCA has become a powerful tool for thinking about a wide array of both environmental and social consequences flowing from resource extraction, production processed and the disposal of waste material. - Contingent valuation (CV) o First technique used to put a value on previously neglected environmental ‘assets’. o In order to turn qualitative assessments of value into something more quantitative CV has worked with the principle of ‘willingness to pay’, or ‘willingness to accept’. o Weakness: it is hard to bring wide-ranging conversations about values into any kind of consensus on a measurement. o Its strength: it forces economic policymakers into processes of consultation with known and potential stakeholders who have divergent views about environmental values. The economics of happiness Sustainability scholars have long focused on the shortcomings of Gross Domestic Product (GPD) as the indicator of choice for measuring the economic performance of nations and regions. A lot of work has gone into replacing the GPD with something like a Genuine Progress Indicator. A key concept here is to shift the focus form production to the improvement of social ‘well-being’. Growing concerns about the social and personal impacts of hyper consumption have put the achievement of happiness on the agenda of economists and policy-makers in a range of highly developed nations. Evidence-based and value-based policy Evidence-based policy: - Has helped to make policy-makers more accountable for the decisions they make. In making policy-making more transparent it reduces the dangers of political corruption or the arbitrary use of political power and influence. - But it tends to favour supposedly unbiased facts and figures over perceptions, feelings or sentiment. Value-based policy: - There is no such thing as an objective fact, data used to support one policy option over others always reflects the assumptions and presuppositions of people who have collected the data. - Argumentation is the key process through which citizens and policy-makers arrive at moral judgements and policy choices. Social inclusion and the politics of participation Deliberative democracy: - Key concern: make policy development more socially responsive. So, it is better to take time to ensure wide participation in the development of policy rather than implement policies that may favour some people over others, or divide people and communities. 24 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ - Key principle: decision making needs to be as transparent as possible in order to reveal any influence that may be exerted on the policy-makers by interest groups or lobbyists. - Critics: it is too slow and cumbersome to achieve clear and efficient policy outcomes. - Opponents tend to argue that representative democracy is far more efficient because elected representatives can speak on behalf of their constituents without resorting to cumbersome processes of consultation. The starting point of forming policies should be genuine respect for the diversity of views and approaches, so that efforts can be made to find some common ground. Of course, policy formation cannot always reach a consensus. However, a deliberative process is likely to reduce polarisations in policy-making debates and also reduce resistance to the final outcomes. The politics of shared space Multicultural communities: - The coexistence of groups of people with different beliefs and practices can cause division and conflict. - However, it can also force people to openly negotiate terms for peaceful coexistence, this can create more tolerant and culturally diverse local communities. - Diversity of past experiences may give the community an increased capacity to adapt to changing circumstances. Through new communication technologies communities are no longer just defined by location on earth. However, environmental sustainability forces us all to think about our impacts on both the local and non-local ecosystems form which we draw resources and into which we dump waste materials. Our focus that has shifted to globally now has to return to a more local one. Cultural diversity and cultural vitality Culture: - If we think of it as being the beliefs and practices that are in use within particular human communities, we can see it as a source of resistance to change. - At the same time, the culture of a community can be seen as the conscious representation (art, magazines, films) of prevailing or alternative beliefs and assumptions. While cultural representations may have the intent, or effect, of reinforcing existing beliefs and practices they can also generate conversations about the ongoing relevance of particular beliefs and practices; thus, opening a door for cultural change. Creating more inclusive communities Regardless of the personal choices we make about community participation, Delanty and a range of other prominent sociologists have argued that the desire to find a sense of belonging to community is likely to intensify in an increasingly risky and uncertain world 25 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ 10. Personal dimensions The key aim of this chapter is: How can individuals create the kinds of communities and societies that can rise to the challenges we face globally? A fully sustainable society is not something that can be reached by just governments and scientists, this confronts every person on this planet. However, the experts and governments do have a critical part in encouraging the individuals to take action. Nikolas Rose (sociologist from England) states that society consists of communities created to give us each a sense of purpose and belonging, however the construction of these communities should begin with the individuals instead of the other way around. the key aim of this chapter is to consider how individuals can create communities and societies that can rise to the challenges we face globally. It is important that we understand the limits to individual action, Anthony Giddens (another British sociologist) notes that individual beliefs, actions and attitudes are shaped by the community in which they are born. Cultures tend to resist change because beliefs and practices are upheld by social institutions. However, the increasing global movement of people, goods and (most importantly) information is undermining the influence of these local and even national institutions. Also, we live in post-traditional societies, societies where less effort is put into socializing individuals into a particular way of thinking (individualization). New communication technologies make it easier for people to join non-local communities (communities of practice). Digital story telling gets more popular, because it’s harder for the individuals to make sense of their own diverse lives (because of their diverse communities). This chapter aims to give substance to the last two of the nine RMIT Sustainability principles, namely 1. Move from consumerism to quality of life goals 2. Learn how to travel hopefully in a world of uncertainty It will focus on: The possibilities for taking individual action in a ‘runaway world’. The creation and sharing of life stories. Opportunities presented by the ‘digital age’, including possibilities for joining communities of practice. Some reasons for feeling hopeful about the future. Individuals who are prepared to take risks and live with uncertainty cope best with unexpected changes (personal resilience). Rather than focus our thoughts on where we want to be, at some point in the future we can focus more on the journey we are already making, unforeseen challenges and opportunities included. We need to look inside ourselves to find a sense of self-worth, because if you live according to opinions you will never be rich (as a person). However, our sense of self is strongly influenced by prevailing 26 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ cultural beliefs and practices. Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs backs this up (see chapter 3). However, personal resilience cannot ignore the influence of culture. Taking and sustaining action 2 reactions to feeling insignificant and powerless with respect to global challenges can be: Powerlessness encourages individuals to throw themselves into activism that cannot be sustained for long periods of time, and has little effect. Individuals decide that that personal action is insignificant and worthless. Inaction = irresponsible and effective action = poses deep dilemmas. Many of these challenges discussed in this book can leave individuals feeling powerless, people may decide to start activism that won’t sustain long, but people can also decide that individual action is worthless, no action is not an option and effective action is elusive. Stuart hill (British social ecologist) describes this dilemma, he states that no individual action is insignificant because it’s part of a bigger plan however, this individual action should be sustained. Effective action needs effective monitoring, therefore there should be feedback loops. This requires the help of other people, who can help reflect the meaningfulness of your actions. Positive feedback will motivate, while negative feedback will help you redirect. Ulrich beck and Anthony Giddens had similar conclusions on the downfall of social institutions due to global flows. They argued that individuals are more likely to be the authors of their own stories, they say we need to find a life of one’s own in a runaway world. Richard Sennet adds that individuals are more obliged to make sense of their life experiences, also the ability to share life stories can help to overcome social isolation. Sometimes the writing of stories helps the author to make sense of his own life, but at the same time it helps other people who are in the same situation make sense of theirs. In the late 1990’s Anthony Giddens became an enthusiastic supporter of the Blair Labour governments social inclusion. The goal of this institution was to get rid of adversary politics (a deep consensus between main political parties). He wanted to bring Britain together, the term social inclusion is important here. New opportunities in the ‘digital age’ Digital storytelling technologies and techniques have greatly increased the capacity for people to create and share short stories based on lived experiences. However, people should not become mesmerised by success stories. New communication technologies make it easier to build the global movement for sustainable living. Communities of practice The dangers of digital overload are offset by the fact that some online communities can have enduring significance and they can enhance the capacity of participants to take and sustain action in the world. 27 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ Arguments of hope We can take hope from the fact that humanity has only really been thinking about global sustainability challenges for just over a quarter of a century and that is a short time within the long span of human history. The biggest challenges sometimes bring out the best in people We have unprecedented global awareness and incredible powers of communication Growing global challenges may mean that the imperative to cooperate may overtake self-interest and competition A lot of the intellectual work for knowing how to live more sustainably has already been done; we need to focus now on building social and political will to change direction We have the exciting opportunity to participate in the biggest social movement in history Entering a new phase in the history of humanity We are witnessing a major transition stage in the history of life on Earth. Anthropocene: homo sapiens had the capacity to change the conditions of life of all other organisms. The creation of our universe and the evolution of life on our planet can inspire us to feel deep sense of solidarity with all other forms of life. The emergence of human consciousness is part of that unfolding story and we might eventually learn to think of life on Earth as a ‘communion of subjects rather than a collection of objects’. To learn how to live graciously together would make us worthy of this unique, beautiful blue planet that evolved in its present splendour over some billions of years. If we can revere how things are, and can find a way to express gratitude for our existence, then we should be able to figure out, with a great deal of work and good will, how to share the Earth with one another and with other creatures, how to restore and preserve its elegance and grace. 28 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ 11. Taking Action This chapter focuses on what individuals can do in the wider organisational, social and cultural settings. Parts with focus on discussion question are marked with a red note. Key actors and actor networks: It is important to distinguish these Actor roles: question 1 Stakeholders: who may have an interest but little capacity to act. Actors: who may be able to play an active role within a particular scenario Key actors: A person who assumes -or is given- responsibility to implement change within an organisation or community. - The selection of key actors cannot be based solely on old friendships or associations. Careful, strategic and consideration is needed to really be able to get the tools to make a change. - Any proposal that fails to convince key actors is doomed to failure so changes have to be sufficiently researched. Actor networks: Key actors which have been recruited to a certain cause have to work together with many different kinds of people. And this may cause inertia or even resistance. Cultural change within an organisation or community of people s difficult to achieve because we all operate with a habit of acquired natures and unconscious assumptions Pierre Bourdieu says. So, people can react emotionally to a change because they see it as a threat to their normality. Patience is needed for this. People who are being recruited will mostly have a rather complex relationship with other actors. Question 2 Bruno Latour has popularized the actor network theory: which goes beyond the concept of networks of human actors, it sees a role for non-human components in such networks. It has deepened understanding of the behaviour of human networks. Effective Actor networks focus on building strong relationships and on certain tasks or desired outcomes. So, it contributes to achieve changes even though there are unpredictable cultural changes. Stakeholder Consultations The ‘contingent valuation’ * approach has advocated widespread consultation with people who may have a direct or indirect stake in the preservation or exploitation of particular natural resources. * Contingent valuation is a survey-based technique for estimating the value of non-market resources, such as benefits derived from preserving the natural environment. The benefits of these stakeholder consultations are now widely accepted, though it is very hard to reconcile the competing interests of different stakeholders and time-consuming. Because of this the consultations are often performed in superficial ways (manipulation f.e.) Question 3 29 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ But these kinds of consultations increase the division and resentment among the stakeholders and this can bounce back to those responsible. Clear distinction between stakeholders and communities is needed. Making and monitoring policy To make sure all the desired changes are sustained and/or integrated they may need to be set within policy frameworks. These frameworks aim to put together the orientation and commitments of the organisation or community in relation to the issues being addressed. Policy responses vary from restrictions to protocols, environmental policy has become an established field of practice at levels ranging from private corporations to various agencies of the UN. Good policy should drive changes in attitudes and practises. The word policy has many meanings: - Vig and Kraft (1994) say that policy states an intent to achieve certain goals and objectives through a conscious choice of means, usually within some specified time period. - Davis (1992) described environmental policy processes as ‘issue attention cycles’. The attention often fades once a policy has been formulated only to re-emerge when the issue or problem re-emerges in a slightly different form. This implies that policies need to be constantly revisited a reassessed: a cycle. Question 4 - Thomas and Murfitt introduce this as a ‘policy cycle’: Thomas and Murfitt noted that a policy review may reprioritise the problem being addressed but this does not mean that the Periodic problem has been solved. It Policy highlights the fact that priorities review must be chosen and this comes back to choices based on values. policy Identify monitorin Reused or new problems g/evalutai policy and issues on Reused or Policy new implemen policy t-ation Performance indicators ‘Performance indicators’ are goals that are expressed as benchmarks against which actual performance can be measured. The policy cycle also comes down to difficult choices about which performance indicators should be used for the monitoring and evaluation; the choices are being reflected in the selection of ‘key performance indicators’(KPIs.) For a long time, there was only focus on quantitative indicators (performances that can be measured in numbers or statistics). This gives little information about the overall well-being 30 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ or happiness. Question 5 (this is why caution is needed). It has become more common to mix quantitative and qualitative indicators. The addition of qualitative indicators increases the choices available to the organisation or community wanting to set KPIs. But still do they need to make value-based choices. ! It is helpful to remember that the selection of KPIs can be revised for any particular policy cycle, this is important since the possibilities are endless. Scerri and James state that the effort to reach an agreement on KPIs can be very informative to all involved, the process of the choice may be just as important of the final choice. Regulations and market mechanisms An everlasting debate in countries with highly developed economies is whether it is better to rely on government regulation or market-based incentives to achieve environmentally sustainable development. Economic incentives might include government subsidies or tax cuts but they might extend to labelling systems or public rewards for businesses and organisations that show ‘corporate responsibility’ in taking environmental sustainability seriously. Rating systems: comparisons made between different items, products, performances that indicate performance in relation to particular goals, such as minimal use of energy. These rating systems enable consumers to select products that are ‘ethical’ in terms of their use of products and raw materials have become more prevalent. But not only do these products need a market edge, regulations are also needed. People who run private corporations are obliged to focus on long-term sustainability of the ‘business model’. A number of sustainability concepts have been drawn from business management literature: - Stakeholder consultation - Scenarios mapping: was initiated by separately by the US military and by Shell Oil in the early 1970s to encourage contemplation of different scenarios that might evolve in the future and the particular challenges they might pose for those involved in the contemplation. - Business plan: refers to the formal presentation of a set of goals that involves cost- benefit analysis and the reasons why the plans are achievable. Within the business plan economic costs and benefits will always be a consideration but they need to be contextualised within a wider consideration of social and environmental costs and benefits. - Balance sheet: refers to a concise presentation, usually in table form, of anticipated financial costs and incomes. However, the notion of ‘balance sheet’ has been extended to refer to any cost-benefit analysis.!: turning costs and benefits into numbers makes it easier to make this. Important people: Question 5 (useful concepts) - Nicolas Stern: In a 2006 report het wrote for the UK government about the economic consequences of climate change. He argued that the costs associated with maintaining an economy that is heavily dependent on the use of oil will steadily rise 31 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/  while corporations that shift to low-carbon production will eventually benefit economically, even if there is a short-term transition cost. è He urged that the government would make policies that would encourage and reward the development of the low-carbon economy. ! problem: policies may come out disappointing since individual businesses want policy certainty before changing long-term investments and governments are reluctant on impose pressure. Some projects even made things worse (danger relying on market mechanism) - Joseph Stiglitz: an influential critic of free market approaches to the development of a global economy who called for much stronger policy interventions on the part of national governments. - Wolfgang Sachs: stated that the trend of globalisation should be reversed so every society can develop an indigenous model of prosperity based on stable or shrinking volumes of production. Community Engagement The transition to more sustainable ways of living requires public education and/or community engagement. But the word ‘community’ is widely used and frequently abused. Gerard Delanty (2003) argues that a sense of belonging to community only exists today if it is ‘wilfully constructed’ and that we can now belong to a variety of real and virtual communities. He pays attention to the formation of human communities in a wide variety of settings and contexts instead of a local, place-based community. The breadth of source material that is used by prevailing discourses on sustainability is a strength. But this creates the idea that strategies for achieving sustainability are a matter for relevant ‘experts’ and so the expertise must be taken to communities, rather than found within them. Question 6: A handbook produced by an international team of planning and community development professionals, Wendy Sarkissian among them, has stressed people supress their opinions if they run the risk of appearing ignorant. People are likely to think that any communities they belong to are too weak or fragmented to take effective collective action. è Action on sustainability requires an understanding of key concepts but once a motivation for change is firmly established it can become stimulation to build stronger communities. è The book shows examples of community building: Patience is needed and it is important to take time to gain trust and turn ideas into action. People suited should like ‘kitchen table conversations’. The book is focused on working with local communities but the key principles can be applied to other settings. Fostering sustainable behaviour For an individual, it is hard to keep up good (environmental) behaviour, especially when other non-sustainable/environmental friendly behaviour is more beneficial. It makes is 32 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ easier to sustain good behaviour when more people bear the same “burden”. So, to get people to change, one should engage communities. Changes of success are boosted when there has been a collective effort (not individual) to identify the ‘barriers and benefits’ and when a selected initiative or programme is piloted and evaluated before being properly launched or dropped. - Mackenzie and Smith argue that sustainable behaviour can often be motivated on the basis of long-term economic self-interest (economic term: community-based social marketing) - They also draw from the international practice of community development. In the late 1960s and early 1970s community development practice originated in the UK speak to other countries. Mackenzie and Smith focused on strategies for motivating behaviour change, others have focused on the kinds of public policies that might foster behaviour change at local levels, the focus shifted to barriers and incentives (stimulation). An interesting model emerged out of this by UK DEFRA (2005) It recommends an equal emphasis on policies and initiatives. Enable Encourage Catalyse Engage (communities to take up such behaviour) Exemplify A narrative approach to culture change Question 6 pitfall: The US natural history academic and writer Tom Wessels concludes that the time has come to shift the emphasis from behaviour change to cultural change, since all the rational and scientific arguments for sustainability have failed to stop the human belief of unlimited progress (myth of progress). John Greer (2008) has argued that the myth of progress has emerged and persisted as a kind of antidote to the ancient myth of apocalypse, which suggests that the golden age of humanity is already in the past because we have set out on a path towards self-destruction. Fear of apocalypse makes us cling to the belief of limitless growth. Question 7 benefit: Myths that are deeply embedded with any particular human culture are likely to have ancient and forgotten origins and have been passed down in traditional oral cultures. This was never for entertainment alone and many old stories continue to circulate. The rise of empirical science has only partially diminished their importance. 33 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ Narrative inquiry (storytelling research) has become a specialised form of qualitative research operating across many social science disciplines. The ability of storytelling has been acknowledged, especially now new communication technologies have opened up greater opportunities. Stories are widely seen as being cultural artefacts but can also understood as modes of persuasion for social and cultural change. For tips to being a change agent, go to page 172 in the book. 34 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ 12. Introduction to assessment and monitoring tools Environmental impact assessment: refers to a study of all the possible environmental impacts of a proposed project to be carried out before the project begins. A requirement to conduct EIAs as a precondition for any new project was first enacted in the US National Environment Policy Act of 1969 but the practice has now become widespread. The term Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is often used to refer to the report of an EIA. Assessment and monitoring tools (to carry out an EIA): Footprint calculator: First Ecological Footprint Calculator was developed by Mathis Wackernachel in the 1990s. - To convert an estimate of raw materials used and waste generated by any unit of production and consumption into an estimate of how much land is required to produce the raw materials and dispose the waste. - “Footprint”: to indicate a relative share of planetary resources needed to sustain the targeted unit of production and consumption. - Great tool for raising awareness on environmental impact, but has limits as it is difficult to quantify all environmental consequences of consumption and production (unreliable). Inventories and audits: - Inventories: a list of raw materials used and waste generated. Consciousness-raising exercise. Problem: resource use and waste generation cannot be determined precisely. - Audits: official examination of the energy/water use for the selected unit of production and consumption. The surveys and analysis of energy/water flows for particular buildings. à To reduce supply requirements/set up energy efficiency plans - Risk assessment and management: To determine the distinction between acceptable and unacceptable risks, in order to generate conversations on which risks need to be avoided or managed. This determination is influenced by cultural beliefs, the severity of the impact and the frequency of occurrence and it requires cooperation between those who may be exposed to risks and who may expose others to risk. There is a grey area between acceptable and unacceptable risks, see image (Risk assessment matrix). - Life-cycle analysis (LCA): since 1960s, the notion of thinking through the consequences of production or activity cycles from ‘cradle to grave’. 35 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/  - According to environmentalists: emphasis on recycling by looking at the possibilities for turning this into genuine cycles from ‘cradle to cradle’ à Concept was developed by William McDonough and Michael Braungart (2002): products should meet criteria regarding recycled material used, waste produced and transport from production to consumption. - Thomas and Murfitt have amended the model from an emphasis on interpretation and diagnosis to an emphasis on action, they recommend the following stages: - The scoping stage: goals and system boundaries are agreed. - The inventory stage (brainstorming phase): data on raw materials/component parts, energy and waste are compiled. - The impact assessment stage: flows of materials and energy are considered in relation to environmental concerns/trends. - The improvement assessment stage (challenging): better ways to use materials/energy are identified (completing the cradle-to-cradle cycle). - LCA and social sustainability: LCA includes social dimensions of sustainability for production or activity cycles, by focusing on how raw materials/component parts were extracted, grown or manufactured before reaching the nominated site of production or consumption or where waste is being disposed. Knowing the identity of sites of extraction or production à ethical consumption (educational tool)/social awareness. - LCA shows the environmental costs resulting from the use of fossil fuels used for transporting (parts of) products in the production chain. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA): since 1808 used for environmental purposes (especially for water management). To determine the economic viability and to assess the environmental sustainability of a particular project or activity. - Turning assessments into recommendations. - Critical point: assumptions that underpin final conclusions are narrowly received. - The main stages in a CBA: 1) Project definition: set physical boundaries of the project, identify who/what will be effected, consider project options. 2) Identify all relevant costs and benefits: identify impacts arising from the project, exclude those that cannot be directly attributed to the project, finalise the cost/benefit inventory. 3) Value all the included costs and benefits: collect data on monetary costs and benefits. 4) Select and apply a discount rate for changes in value over the life of the project: discount rate (4, 6 or 10%), consider the possibility of new investment opportunities. 5) Assess the economic viability of the project: compile a financial balance, run model with different sensitivities (who/what is in- or excluded). 6) Make recommendations bearing in mind the final monetary assessment of costs vs benefits and margins of error/inaccuracy. - Weakness: awarding monetary values to things that are hard to quantify, therefore environmental valuation techniques were developed: 36 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/  a) Contingent valuation: estimation of ‘willingness to pay’ to preserve an environmental asset. b) Travel cost valuation: the cost people are prepared to pay to travel to specified site. c) Hedonic pricing: estimation of the cost of preserving an asset for people to enjoy. d) Opportunity cost: estimation of the value of the asset if it was used for a different purpose. Benefit valuation techniques: environmental externalities are considered. Weakness valuation techniques: based on personal judgement and human-centred. - Criticisms of the use of CBA: 1) Uncertainty in the awarding of monetary values for many costs/benefits and environmental valuing techniques. 2) The choice of discounting rate is rather arbitrary. 3) No distinction is made between the people or non-human beings that may benefit from the project and those that are likely to be victims. 4) The focus on units rather than systems undervalues interactions. 5) The focus on a single project excludes interactions with other projects. 6) CBAs are open to manipulation/abuse due to many arbitrary decisions in the awarding of values. Scenarios mapping (scenario = ‘postulated sequence of development of events’) - Scenario planning (contemplating a range of diverse future scenarios) focusses on the understanding that future scenarios are not predictions of what will happen but are an effort to sketch out a range of possible settings in which designated actors will find themselves. Important: contemplating a range of possible future scenarios, to develop a capacity to adapt to changing and largely unforeseen circumstances. Term is misleading as it exaggerates the possibilities for determining outcomes. - Scenarios mapping: term works better when working on preferred scenarios. - Relies on scope, time-frame, key uncertainties and data available on relevant trends and predictions. - Goal: the articulation of a range of possible future scenarios, to increase adaptive capacity and to gain greater foresight. 37 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/  13. Focusing on water Water is commonly underrated whereas access to freshwater has already brought conflict and tension among human societies. The objective would be to put water on a higher value so we can start reducing waste and pollution. Aims of this chapter: Highlight the importance and value of water as it moves through the global hydrosphere. Introduce some concepts that can help us to rethink our relationships with water. In history, humans have always settled around rivers and water sources (Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, Indus and Ganges, etc.) which means there are more people who are likely to fight over water when it becomes scarce. Several civil wars were related to having a fair access to water (Israel, Sudan, etc.) in order to improve their health standards. 2.5 billion people live without adequate sanitation and 88% of diarrhoeal (Diarrhoea: biggest cause of illness and deaths in the world) deaths are linked to water access problems. Differential access to water is an indicator of social inequity. It’s hard to think of water as an exhaustible resource because we use it every day in various ways but water has to be valued more highly. We need to appreciate the ecological flows of water on a global scale and reducing waste by learning from people who cope with scarcity and by ensuring water security for the world’s poor. Water molecules circulate globally within the hydrosphere and enable us to think of water as a single planetary system. Water operates as a kind of global thermostat by absorbing heat and reducing fluctuations in surface temperature through water vapour in the atmosphere. An important flow of water is created by ocean currents, which carry warm water from the Pacific into the Atlantic and cold water from the Atlantic into the Pacific. This is called the “great conveyor belt” coming along with the movement know as “thermohaline circulation” that is generated by the differences in the density of seawater. An ecosystem is defined by the interactions between plants, animals and a range of resources within a shared physical space. Humans have been transporting water over increasing distance using streams and lakes as waste disposal systems or boundaries rather than being the focus for an interacting community of plants and animals. The movement of water can bring in “outside” elements from nutrients to toxins and polluted freshwater can travel through boundaries into other. Therefore, we need to see water as an ever-moving element flowing through time and space within a global cycle. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 69% of global fish stocks are either fully exploited or overexploited. This is partly due to indiscriminate and destructive fishing techniques such as “longlining” and “drag-net fishing”. 38 Document shared on https://www.docsity.com/en/summary-an-introduction-to-sustainability-martin-mulligan/7795484/ Water flows do not end when freshwater streams and thus pollution enter the ocean. The hydrological cycle makes us closer to marine creatures than we often imagine and their environment is not an inexhaustible resource. The marine protection begins with what we consume and the way we manage the water flowing through its surrounding