Final Reflection
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SUS350W20Jan7thIntrotoSustainability1.pptxSUS 350 Sustainable Communities
Kim Townsend
Winter 2020
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Contemporary Global Issues Learning Objectives
Analyze the origins, historical contexts, and implications of contemporary global issues.
Explain the complex nature and interdependence of contemporary global issues using a multi-disciplinary approach.
Articulate in writing a critical perspective on contemporary global issues using evidence as support.
Course Learning Objectives
Identify major ecosystem services and how they are utilized by humans.
Define sustainability and resilience and describe the interdependence between ecological, social and economic systems.
Utilize critical and systems thinking skills to analyze complex sustainability issues.
Identify personal motivations for sustainability action at the individual and community levels.
Identify and apply sustainability change agent skills.
Course Components
Participation (250 points)
• In-Class Activities
• Guest Speaker Reflections
Corvallis Sustainability Coalition Action Team Research Assignment (100 points)
Group Project Assignments:
• Proposal Idea Selection (75 points)
• Group Project Contract (75 points)
• Service Learning Project (100 points)
• Grant Proposal (150 points)
• Poster Presentation (150 points)
Final Reflection (100 points)
Total Points: 1000
Service Learning Requirement
You are required to complete 4 hours of service outside of the classroom
Service Learning groups will be set up on Canvas
Deanna Lloyd, the experiential learning coordinator, will join us in class on Jan 14th to introduce the service learning project
Getting to know you
Is anyone brand new to OSU?
Is anyone brand new to Canvas?
What majors are represented today?
Getting to know you
Who has taken another SUS course?
Who has taken another sustainability related course?
Who is enrolled in the Sustainability Double Degree Major or Minor?
Who is new to the field of sustainability?
Who is here to complete the bacc core Contemporary Global Synthesis requirement?
Who is here to fulfill an elective?
Who is here for fun?
In-Class Activity Part 1
How would you define sustainability?
What are your specific interests within sustainability?
What do you want to sustain in your own life?
How would you define community?
What are some characteristics of sustainable communities?
Sustainability Frameworks
Echoes from the Past
“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations”
The Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy 1142 A.D.
Echoes from the Past
Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground -- the unborn of the future Nation
The Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy 1142 A.D.
Echoes from the Past
“Then I say the earth belongs to each...generation during its course, fully and in its own right. The second generation receives it clear of the debts and encumbrances, the third of the second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation. Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence.”
Thomas Jefferson 1789
“The "greatest good for the greatest number" applies to the people within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us to restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations."
“The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others.”
Theodore Roosevelt 1916
Fig. 3 The current status of the control variables for seven of the nine planetary boundaries.
Will Steffen et al. Science 2015;347:1259855
Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science
The current status of the control variables for seven of the nine planetary boundaries. The green zone is the safe operating space (below the boundary), yellow represents the zone of uncertainty (increasing risk), and red is the high-risk zone. The planetary boundary itself lies at the inner heavy circle. The control variables have been normalized for the zone of uncertainty (between the two heavy circles); the center of the figure therefore does not represent values of 0 for the control variables. The control variable shown for climate change is atmospheric CO2 concentration. Processes for which global-level boundaries cannot yet be quantified are represented by gray wedges; these are atmospheric aerosol loading, novel entities, and the functional role of biosphere integrity. Modified from (1).
What are the ‘root causes’ contributing to a lack of sustainability?
What are the ‘root causes’ contributing to a lack of sustainability?
Brundtland Commission
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Created by UN in 1983 to address concerns ….
"about the accelerating deterioration of the human environment and natural resources and the consequences of that deterioration for economic and social development.”
Coined the term “sustainable development”
Defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Brundtland Report
The ‘interlocking crises’
“…the industries most heavily reliant on environmental resources and most heavily polluting are growing most rapidly in the developing world, where there is both more urgency for growth and less capacity to minimize damaging side effects.
These related changes have locked the global economy and global ecology together in new ways.
We have in the past been concerned about the impacts of economic growth upon the environment. We are now forced to concern ourselves with the impacts of ecological stress - degradation of soils, water regimes, atmosphere, and forests upon our economic prospects.
We have in the more recent past been forced to face up to a sharp increase in economic interdependence among nations. We are now forced to accustom ourselves to an accelerating ecological interdependence among nations.
Ecology and economy are becoming ever more interwoven locally, regionally, nationally, and globally into a seamless net of causes and effects.”
Brundtland Report
An optimistic message
“Our Report is not a prediction of ever increasing environmental decay, poverty, and hardship in an ever more polluted world among ever decreasing resources.
We see instead the possibility for a new era of economic growth, one that must be based on policies that sustain and expand the environmental resource base.
And we believe such growth to be absolutely essential to relieve the great poverty that is deepening in much of the developing world.”
Brundtland Report
Emphasized three key components of sustainable development:
Economic growth/development
Environmental quality/protection
Social equity
Corporate Social Responsibility and the Triple Bottom Line
John Elkington (1998)
sustainability should be perceived as a: “triple bottom line, focusing on economic prosperity, environmental quality, and … social justice”
emphasizes a change in corporate responsibility from “shareholders” to “stakeholders”
Sustainability Frameworks
Triple bottom line (TBL)
Three-legged stool
3 Es: Environment, Equity, Economics
3Ps: People, Profit, Planet
3 Pillars of Sustainability
3 Dimensions of Sustainability
In-Class Activity Part 2
Is continuing economic growth sustainable? Why or Why not?
What is the importance of intact ecosystem structure and function?
Is social equity achievable? Does your answer change depending on scale?
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
Leon C. Megginson
Sustainability Frameworks
Triple bottom line (TBL)
Three-legged stool
3 Es: Environment, Equity, Economics
3Ps: People, Profit, Planet
3 Pillars of Sustainability
3 Dimensions of Sustainability
Defining the Social Leg
What is social justice?
Philosophical construct that involves
Equality
Social fabric of communities
Basic human rights
Acknowledgement and respect for dignity of individuals
What is social equity?
Equal opportunity Redistribution of wealth/income
Social Equity: Its Legacy, Its Promise Mary E. Guy and Sean A. McCandless
To be clear, “equity” and “equality” are terms that are often used interchangeably, and to a large extent, they have similar meanings. The difference is one of nuance: while equality can be converted into a mathematical measure in which equal parts are identical in size or number, equity is a more flexible measure allowing for equivalency while not demanding sameness.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2012.02635.x/abstract
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Perception is Everything
Sustainability is the point where human endeavors reflect social equity, political stability, and economic development that is balanced with the capacity of ecosystems to absorb impacts without declining ecosystem structure and function
https://fa.oregonstate.edu/sustainability/academics/sustainability-course-lists
Least sustainable
More sustainable
Most sustainable
A New Way of Thinking
What are the origins, end-points and impacts of the resources we consume?
How are human communities linked by their activities?
What are the relationships between economic decisions, social equity and ecological conditions?
How can we design an economy that mimics the way nature works (operates within physical limits)?
Lessons to Take Forward
Sustainability requires viewing each decision within a system of interconnected and interdependent parts
Change involves uncertainty, and uncertainty is the norm in complex systems
Dealing with uncertainty requires an adaptive approach
Adaptive Management
In-Class Activity Part 1
Part 1: Work in groups of 2-3 to create your own visual model of sustainability. Submit both the image that you create and a paragraph or two explaining your image to the Visual Representations of Sustainability Discussion Board on Canvas.
In-Class Activity Part 2
Part 2: Comment on at least three sustainability models. Consider the following in your comments:
Explain what impresses or resonates with you.
Can you see other ways to interpret the model?
Did this model reinforce or expand your understanding of sustainability?
Next week:
Tuesday:
Systems Thinking
Introduction to Service Learning Projects by Deanna Lloyd
Thursday:
Community Resilience
Overview of Group Project, introduction to first assignment.
